The Tale of the Fox and the Raven
by Emotive Gothika
Summary: After the massacre of the Uchiha clan, Sasuke meets Naruto, a boy with a dark secret. They form a strong bond and will face great dangers in the world of the shinobi. DISCONTINUED
1. Chapter 1

**Naruto: Emolette does not own my show, my friends, or my story.**

**Emolette: 'Cuz if I did, everything would be screwed up.**

**Sasuke: Much like yourself?**

**Emolette: -snuggles Sasuke- Yup. . . Sasu-kun, did anyone tell you that you look like a rooster because of your hair?**

**Sasuke: -angry vein-**

**Naruto: -laughs- Finally, a fangirl with some constructive criticisms.**

**Emolette: -snuggles Naruto- When did you learn to say big words Naru-kun?**

**Naruto: -angry vein-**

**Emolette: On with the story!!!**

**Chapter One**

**" The Meeting "**

Uzumaki Naruto got home late, as usual, after a long day of training in the forest. He slammed the door behind him as he entered his apartment and, ignoring the growling protests of his stomach, he proceeded to his bathroom.

Training with Kyuubi exhausted Naruto of chakra and strength, but what he didn't like was getting dirty. He just hated the feeling of dirt on his skin, that's why he always takes a shower immediately after coming home. He wasn't a germaphobe or anything. He just liked being clean better then being dirty.

Naruto entered his small bathroom and stripped down to nothing as he stepped into the tub. He turned on the shower head and turned up the temperature to the hottest he could handle. Seeing that he could now endure Kyuubi's burning chakra without showing pain on his face, the water was pretty hot. Naruto soaked himself in the shower, feeling the hot water all over his small body and letting it soothe his aching muscles. He loved the water. It just washed everything away.

_I wish water could wash troubles away as easily as it does dirt._

**That's some wish kit.**

_Kyu, I thought you were sleeping._

**I got bored sleeping.**

Naruto sighed. In the two years he had known the demon, he could never figure the kitsune out and he was sure he never will. The blond ignored his demon and continued with his shower, scrubbing himself with vanilla-scented body wash (he hated using soap) and washing his hair with some sweet-smelling shampoo (that DIDN"T contain any fruit extract). After rinsing himself free of any irratating soap suds, Naruto got out of the shower and dried himself with a fresh towel. Wrapping the towel around his waist, Naruto went to his room and dug through his closet for some clothes.

Most of Naruto's bright neon-orange clothes were now in the laundry. He only wore those clothes in public and to sell his "village idiot" image. He absolutely hated orange, but it was the only color that appealed to him and looked stupid enough. What kind of ninja would wear "kill me" orange right? So, since it was evening and barely anybody would be out in the streets at this time, he decided that it was the best time to do his laundry.

Naruto pulled on some clean underwear, a black shirt, and black shorts that hung loosely around his knees. He then gathered his dirty laundry and trudged out the door, locking and slamming it behind him.

_Help! Please help me!_

Uchiha Sasuke ran through the village, tears streaming down his face and his heart beating painfully against his chest. His lungs were burning for he had been running for who knows how long. The poor boy had just witnessed the murdering of his clan by none other then his older brother, Itachi. He was confused, oh so confused. The person who he had looked up to his whole life, the person he wanted to surpass, the person he loved with all his heart, had killed their whole family, leaving no survivor save for the young Uchiha running throught the dark village streets.

_Where is everyone?! Help! Please help me! Please help!_

But no one could hear Sasuke's screams of help that were only inside his mind. Sasuke was too scared to speak, afraid that Itachi would hear him and kill him because he was weak enough to go running for help. He was too afraid to even think that the thought was too silly.

Sasuke was afraid, seriously afraid. He had never felt so much fear in his whole life, until now.

Itachi used his mangekyou sharingan on his own brother to make him experience the pain that their family members felt when they were killed. Sasuke could still see the images and feel the pain that his family felt.

Sasuke was so confused. So scared and confused.

Why wasn't there anyone on the streets?!

**Thud!**

"OOF!!!" cried two voices, the sound of them colliding resounding in the empty air.

"Watch where you're going!"

Sasuke looked around and saw a blond boy around his age sitting a few feet away from him with a laundry basket that had a fraction of its contents spewed onto the ground. The blond boy glared at Sasuke with amazing blue eyes, eyes that looked like an ocean even in the darkness of the night, but they immediately dropped the glare when they saw Sasuke's tear-stained face.

"Hey, why're you crying?" asked the blond boy.

Sasuke couldn't take it anymore. Before he could stop himself, he lunged towards the boy with sun-kissed hair and buried his face into his chest, tears falling freely from his eyes. The blond was surprised at Sasuke's sudden sobbing, but he didn't push the brunet away. In fact, the blond wrapped his arms around Sasuke and hugged the boy, comforting him.

"Don't worry, everything's okay," said the blond, hugging Sasuke even tighter. Sasuke just cried even harder bacause he knew everything wasn't okay.

After god-knows-how-long, Sasuke's sobs were reduced to hiccups and sniffles. He gently pushed himself away from the blond and wiped his face, his cheeks a little pink and his eyes bloodshot.

"G-Gomen," whispered Sasuke, his voice barely audible but the blond boy heard it.

"Don't apologize," he said, plucking on his shirt that was damp with Sasuke's tears. "You were sad, you couldn't help it."

Sasuke nodded, but didn't say anything. The blond gave him a curious look, then stuck out his hand.

"Uzumaki Naruto," he said.

"H-Huh?" said Sasuke.

"My name's Uzumaki Naruto. What's yours?" said Naruto with a kind smile.

"U-Uchiha Sasuke," said Sasuke, shaking Naruto's hand although hestantly.

"Hey, I think we're in the same class at the academy."

"Y-Yeah."

Naruto noticed that his attempts of making Sasuke smile were not working, so he had no chioce but to face the problem.

"So," said Naruto with a small cough."Why were you crying Sasuke?'

At that, Sasuke's eyes filled with tears once more and he covered his face with his hands and started crying again.

"M-My f-family's been m-m-murdered and I-I d-don't know what t-to d-do!" wailed Sasuke. Naruto's eyes went wide at this and he grabbed Sasuke's hand, wrenching it away from the brunet's face.

"Why didn't you say that in the first place instead of crying on my chest?!" he cried, making the Uchiha wince. "We have to go to the Hokage!"

Sasuke couldn't remember what happened next. He just suddenly felt himself being pulled by the blond boy - Naruto - and they were suddenly at the Hokage's office. Sasuke didn't know what was happening around him. He vaguely remembered Naruto talking to the Hokage about something, then some ANBU appeared and the aged Hokage barked orders at them before they left. Sasuke felt a stinging on his left arm and he looked down to see a cut on his tricep. The memory of hearing the screams and feeling the pain of his family flooded into him and Sasuke's started to feel faint.

"Sasuke? What's wrong? Sasuke!"

At that, Sasuke blacked out.

_Where am I? What's that sound?_

Sasuke slowly opened his eyes and found himself standing in his home, right outside the room he found his brother with his dead parents. Fear struck Sasuke's heart when he remembered opening those double doors and finding his mother and father dead on the floor, swimming in a pool of their own blood.

_Wh-What am I doing here? Why am I here?_

Sasuke looked around again and noticed that something was different. Everything was _red_. It was the same kind of red that Sasuke saw when Itachi used the mangekyou on him. But why was he seeing this way? Was he dreaming? Was the mangekyou still affecting Sasuke even when he slept?

There was only one way to find out.

Sasuke grasped the handles of the doors in front of him. Even though he knew he was dreaming, even though he didn't want to experience it again, even though his body was shaking with fear, Sasuke pulled the doors open, his heart beating frantically against his chest.

Sasuke was met by the same darkness he saw that night, but there was an unfamiliar sound and he was sure he heard nothing of the sort that night. Sasuke wandered into the room, listening to the sound. The doors slowly closed behind him, but he didn't notice it. He was only focused on the sound, the sound that he just realized was what he heard before opening his eyes.

Sasuke's eyes adjusted to the darkness and he was greeted with the same sight of his parents laying dead on the floor, but there was a third figure crouching on the floor next to his parents. This figure was shaking and Sasuke knew that the sound was coming from this figure.

The sound of crying.

Sasuke slowly approached the figure, but the figure looked up at Sasuke just as the young Uchiha was five steps away from it. Sasuke drew back in horror when he recognized the face.

The tear-stained face of his brother.

"You!" cried Sasuke, glaring at his brother with all the hate he could muster.

"S-Sasuke," whispered Itachi, looking at his younger brother with pleading eyes. Sasuke was taken aback.

_Why was he crying? And why is he looking at me like that?_

"Sa-Sasuke!" cried Itachi and Sasuke jumped. Itachi's eyes now showed fear and desperation, foreign emotions that Sasuke has never seen on his brother's face before. "Sasuke! Forgive me! Forgive me for killing them! Please forgive me!"

Sasuke glared at his brother, who was kneeling on the floor with fresh tears falling from his eyes.

"Why should I forgive you?! You killed our family! I will never forgive you! I hate you!" cried the younger Uchiha, fighting back tears of his own.

"I'm so sorry Sasuke," said Itachi, fighting back sobs. "Th-They ordered me to kill them. The Elders ordered me and they said that if I didn't do what they ordered, they'll kill you. I did what I was supposed to do to save you."

Sasuke stared down at Itachi, disbelief on his face. Was Itachi telling the truth or was it another lie? What was the truth? What was Itachi trying to do?

"O-Otosan was planning a coup de etat against Konoha." said Itachi, not breaking away from Sasuke's gaze. "The Elders learned about it somehow and they ordered me to kill everyone so that it will never happen. They expected me to make a fresh start, to rebuild the clan so that they'll be loyal to Konoha, but I couldn't do that. The guilt prevented me from eventually turning that goal into a reality. That's why I left you alive."

"To rebuild the clan?" said Sasuke despite of himself.

Itachi shook his head. "Not just that. I want you to forget everything I told you about killing your best friend to gain the Mangekyou Sharingan. You already have it."

Sasuke's eyes went wide. He already had the Mangekyou Sharingan? But he didn't even have his sharingan yet.

"I know how you can activate your sharingan," said Itachi, as if reading Sasuke's mind. "It will require skill, determination, and trust. Do you still trust me Sasuke?"

Sasuke looked down at his brother. Tears were still leaking from the older Uchiha's eyes and they looked sincere enough, honest enough. Sasuke's heart wanted to believe in his aniki, but Sasuke's mind didn't. Then, he remembered what his mother told him once.

_"Sasuke, you must always trust your heart no matter what."_

_"What about our mind okasan? Ninjas should use their mind to think up of plans to survive and make traps and -"_

_"I know that Sasu-chan, but you use your mind for thinking. You must use your heart to make decisions."_

_Use your heart for decisions. . ._

Itachi watched Sasuke as his brother thought about it. Itachi's heart sank when he saw Sasuke glare into space.

_He doesn't trust me anymore. I really don't blame him. I should have told him instead of putting him through this pain. Did I make a mistake?_

Anyone else would have a hard time believing that the Uchiha Itachi makes mistakes, but Itachi was human. He makes mistakes like everyone else. He wasn't a god after all.

Itachi snapped out of his own thoughts when he felt arms wrap around him. He saw it was Sasuke's arms and Itachi tensed.

". . . Okasan and otosan would be sad knowing that I hate my aniki," whispered Sasuke in Itachi's ears.

Itachi's body shook and he felt his eyes burn with tears, but he held them back and smiled.

". . . Arigato, otouto," he whispered back.

And the two brothers hugged. Even though it was in a genjutsu, it was real enough for them.

Naruto jerked awake when he almost fell off the roof he was sitting on. Last night, he had met Uchiha Sasuke, a boy whose whole clan had been killed by his older brother. He was worried for the boy, even though they had just met. Sasuke fainted right after they went to the Hokage for help and he has been in the hospital all night. They didn't let Naruto in to see him or sleep with him, so Naruto just waited on the roof all night. Because of his training with Kyuubi, he was able to endure the cold winds, After all, he endure far worst then that.

"Uzumaki Naruto," said a voice and Naruto looked around. Standing behind him was an ANBU with a cat mask. Naruto could sense it was a female.

"You're new aren't you?" asked Naruto but the ANBU didn't answer. That was all Naruto needed anyway.

"Hokage-sama is at the hospital," she said. "He said that if you want to come with him - "

"Let's go," said Naruto. standing up quickly and behind her mask, the ANBU smiled.

She wasn't one of those shinobis who hated Naruto because she was one of the few who understood that Naruto wasn't the Kyuubi.

The ANBU and ninja-in-training jumped off the roof and landed in front of the hospital. They stepped inside and Naruto immediately got glares from everyone in the room, but the Hokage, who was waiting for Naruto, approached them.

"Are you ready to go see your friend Naruto?" he asked and Naruto excitingly nodded at him.

Naruto still had to keep up his fake happiness. Not even Sarutobi Hiruzen, the Sandaime Hokage, knew what Naruto was really like.

But he was suspecting something, especially when he noticed that Naruto was wearing black instead of bright orange.

Sarutobi brought Naruto to Sasuke's room. It was all white, like most hospital rooms are. Sasuke was sleeping peacefully in his bed next to the window and Naruto saw that his arm was already bandaged.

"Ne, ojiji, is he going to be okay?" asked Naruto.

"He'll be fine," reassured Sarutobi. "He was just exhausted. He should wake up soon."

Naruto gave Sarutobi his patented fox grin. "Ne ne, is it okay if I stay with him until he wakes up?"

"I don't see why not," said Sarutobi, returning Naruto's smile with his own.

"Sir, the council," said the female ANBU and the aged Hokage nodded.

"I'm getting too old for ths job," mused Sarutobi to himself and he ruffled Naruto's hair before leaving. "Be good."

Naruto watched as the door clicked behind the Hokage and he returned to staring at Sasuke.

_He looks so peaceful when asleep._

**All people do kit, even me.**

_I kinda find that hard to imagine, but I'll take your word for it._

**This brat's been through alot. It makes me wonder if it's worth having a family when they're just going to be taken from you one day.**

_You can't live without them though. . . We both know that._

Kyuubi nodded in Naruto's mind. Naruto was wiser then those his age. He understood things better then normal kids should. Maybe he was a genius, maybe he was just talented at that. Who knows.

Naruto reached over and brushed away a strand of hair that fell over Sasuke's face. Naruto then put a hand on Sasuke's forehead to feel if he was gaining a fever, but then Sasuke's eyes fluttered open and Naruto withdrew his hand.

"Sasuke!" he said. Sasuke attempted to sit up but got dizzy, so Naruto put a hand on his chest and forced him to lay down again.

"You shouldn't be moving around too much," he said, laying Sasuke down on his pillows again.

"N-Naruto?" said Sasuke, looking up at the blond. "What're you doing here?"

"I'm here to look after you of course," said Naruto with a smile was real and genuine that was rare for the kid. "We're friends after all right?"

"Friends?" said Sasuke. Then he smiled at Naruto, which was also rare for the child. "Yeah, we're friends."

Naruto was taken aback. He expected Sasuke to say "Maybe" or "No way! You're a demon" but he actually agreed with the blond.

_What do I do? What do I do? What do I do?_

**Relax kit. Just go with the flow.**

Naruto gave himself a mental shake and leaned towards Sasuke.

"So, Sasuke, are you alright?" he asked, worried about the effects last night had on Sasuke.

"I'm feeling fine," said Sasuke with a smile that wasn't fake and Naruto raised his eyebrows. "I mean, I'm sad that I don't have a family anymore, but my brother's still out there right? I trust that he'll come back."

"You know, if I were you, I'd hate my brother right now," said Naruto, looking warily at Sasuke.

_Has he gone loco?_

Sasuke shook his head. "I trust my brother. I love him. He told me the truth earlier, the reason why he killed our clan."

Naruto's ears perked up at this (not literally) and he stared at his friend.

"What do you mean by that?" asked the blond and Sasuke turned his head to look at him.

"Naruto, we hve to talk about something." he said.

"About what?"

"About Kyuubi."

**Emolette: Woot! That was long. It took me a few days to finish that and there was a couple of revisings.**

**Naruto: Good job Emo-chan! You did great for your first fanfic!**

**Emolette: Yeah, I know. . . but I wonder how other people might think of it. Please review!!!**

**Sasuke: Even I applaud you Emolette.**

**Emolette: Yay! -snuggles Sasuke-**

**Naruto: Hey! Don't I get a snuggle?**

**Emolette: -snuggles both of them-**

**Naruto: Yay! -snuggles back-**

**Emolette: And just to fill in the blanks, Naru-kun and Sasu-kun are seven years old here, meaning Naruto acknowledged Kyuubi's existence when he was five. How you ask? Find out in the next chappie^^!**

**Naruto: Ya' know, you don't really act like an emo Emo-chan.**

**Emolette: Just because I'm not an unemotional brooder like Mr. Duckbutthead over there, doesn't mean I'm not an emo.**

**Sasuke: You love me, you hate me, make up your mind!**

**Emolette: I will love you and hate you Sasu-kun. Anyway, emo's are actually shy and are kind of socially-inept except around their own peeps. We're into arts and music and love skulls and dark stuff and lock ourselves up in our room with the radio on turned up so loud that no one hears us screaming. . . Oh wait, that's a song, hehe.**

**Sasuke & Naruto: -sweatdrop-**

**Emolette: We have our own unique style which is unlike punk and goth and we like to rock out loud!!! Except Sasuke. . .**

**Sasuke: Well excuuuuuuse me for being a total jerkass and devoting my life into killing my brother only to find out that he was actually protecting Konoha which I am now bent on destroying with the help of a long-lost and assumed dead ancestor and the Akatsuki which I am only using to my advantage and isn't really loyal too.**

**Emolette & Naruto: O.O -shocked silence-**

**Sasuke: What?**

**Emolette: . . . Dude, you just spoiled it for those who haven't read the manga and only watch the anime and have yet to find out the truth about you and your brother. . .**

**Sasuke: o.o; Oh**

**Emolette: Well, who cares? Let's just end this before the people get bored. Please review and I'll try not to put in anymore spoilers. . . or at least these two dunderheads won't.**

**Sasuke & Naruto: -turned heads and pouts- Hmph!**

**Emolette: TTFN! Ta ta for now!**


	2. The Start of a Beautiful Friendship

**Emolette: Yay! A new chappie!**

**Sasuke: Emolette Gothika does not own Naruto or its characters or story.**

**Emolette: Good boy Sasu-kun!**

**Sasuke: -glare-**

**Naruto: In the last chapter, Emo-chan talked about emos and Sasuke spoiled some things.**

**Sasuke: -faces flushes with embarrassment-**

**Naurto: One question before the chapter begins.**

**Emolette: Bring it!**

**Naruto: What do you think about emos?**

**Emolette: I think that emo is the lighter side of goth and the darker side of punk, but that's just my opinion.**

**Naruto: 'Kay 'Kay, start the chapter!**

**Emolette: Woot!**

**Sasuke: -rolls eyes with a smirk-**

**~ Chapter Two ~**

**" The Start of a Beautiful Friendship "**

Uzumaki Naruto and Uchiha Sasuke stood in the middle of a training field, standing a few feet away from each other. Sasuke was able to leave the hospital after a check up and he and Naruto immediately made their way to the training fields. Sasuke knew about Kyuubi and Naruto had to find out how and why. What Naruto was surprised about though, was that Sasuke wasn't afraid of him. After all, it wasn't everyday that you find out that a guy you just met was a container for a demon.

The two boys faces betrayed no emotion They were just standing there, as if calculating the other's thoughts, what the other was going to do. Then, after a long moment, Naruto closed his eyes and sighed.

"So, you know about my secret," he said, opening his eyes. "How?"

"Itachi told me through a genjutsu that activated when I blacked out," said Sasuke without hesitation. "He told me the truth on why he killed our clan. Because I have lost someone close to me, I gained the mangekyou sharingan, but to activate it, I have to gain the sharingan first."

"And what does this have to do with me and Kyuubi?"

"Aniki said that Kyuubi could help me," Sasuke's emotionless face then showed desperation. "I'll give anything. Please Naruto, help me gain my sharingan! I want to help aniki!"

_What do you think Kyu? You wanna help him?_

**Pfft. I don't have anything to gain if I train him.**

_He said he'll give you anything._

**Hm. . . how 'bout a mate?**

_If you're thinking about me and Sasuke togther, forget it you giant furball!_

**I was just kidding! Sheesh kit. Do you wanna help him?**

_Of course I do!_

**Then I guess I have no choice. If you wanna help him, you won't stop bugging me until I do.**

_Is that a yes?_

**Duh! Now bring him in here!**

Naruto smirked and walked towards Sasuke.

"Kyuubi says he'll train you," he said and Sasuke broke out into a grin. "But he wants to see you face-to-face."

"Huh?" said Sasuke and he caught Naruto's azure eyes with his own onyx pair.

In a flash, the scenary around Sasuke changed from a field to a sewer. Pipes interwined at the ceilings and walls and water dripped onto the already flooded floor. Sasuke looked around and saw Naruto standing a few feet away from him.

"Welcome to my mindscape," said the blond with a smirk. "You're the first visitor, so if I were you, I'd feel honored."

Sasuke looked at Naruto with a confused expression. "What do you mean your mindscape?" he asked.

"Duh, we're in my mind," said Naruto. "Or at least, part of it. I've never really seen the other parts."

Naruto looked over his shoulder where a hallway extended into the darkness. He sighed, then turned back to Sasuke.

"Look behind you," he said simply.

Sasuke did, and nearly fell over when he saw a giant pair of crimson eyes stare at him from behind a gigantic cage. Both Naruto and Kyuubi chuckled at Sasuke's shock.

"You really know how to make a first impression last Kyu," said Naruto.

**"I'll never get tired of that," ** said Kyuubi. **"Anyway, Uchiha Sasuke, you are here because you want me to train you correct?" **Sasuke nodded, although hesitantly. **"And you said that you'll give anything to get my help, right?" **Again, Sasuke nodded. **"Well, I can't think of anything right now, but I'll train you anyway because kit wants to help you also. You want to start now?"**

Sasuke didn't need to ask who "kit" was, but he nodded slowly in answer to Kyuubi's question.

**"Good!" **boomed Kyuubi and the word rung in Sasuke's ears. **"Now that that's settled, let's start your training gaki."**

"How're we supposed to do that?" whispered Sasuke as Naruto walked passed him.

"Just follow me," said Naruto and he grabbed Sasuke's hand and dragged him right _into _the cage.

Sasuke was expecting something like a fox hole or like a house pet's living corner to be inside the cage. He didn't expect to walk right into a room that looked like a hotel suite! The rooms walls were painted a nice creamy color and had paintings of foxes hanging on it. In the middle of the room there was a round king-sized bed with red sheets and it had a red curtain hanging above it like a four-poster bed (minus the four posts). The ceiling-high windows were covered with red curtains and the carpet matched the curtains perfectly (not in _**that **_way).

"Wh-Where's Kyuubi?" asked Sasuke and Naruto pointed at the bed. Sasuke looked carefully and saw someone sitting on it. Said person got off the bed and stepped into the light and Sasuke's face blushed a thousand shades of red.

"Hello there kit and guest," said Kyuubi with a smile that could make a grown man nosebleed (Sasuke definately felt like he was gonna have one) and Sasuke blushed another thousand shades (if that was possible).

Kyuubi wasn't at all what Sasuke imagined him to be in his human form. The bijuu was _**gorgeous**_! He had smooth porcelain-like skin and silky bright red hair that framed his face. His crimson eyes with slitted pupils were rather intimidating but were alluring and somewhat seductive also. What was strange was that he was wearing a black kimono that had a nine-tailed fox (a self-portrait perhaps) and red cherry blossom design on it which he wore it off his shoulders with the skirt(?) extending to the ground. Even though the King of Bijuu was obviously male, he was quite feminine in a way (probably a feminist) and looked female also. Sasuke noticed that Naruto was also like that. Naruto was also obviously male, but could be mistaken as a female under the right circumstances.

Kyuubi approached Sasuke and lifted the Uchiha's chin up with a clawed hand. "You're much cuter close up gaki," he said and Sasuke's face turned into a tomato.

"That was the same reaction I got when I first met Kyuu's human form," said Naruto with a chuckle. "Are you trying to kill Sasuke by blood loss? He's bound to have a nosebleed sooner or later."

Kyuubi pouted at Naruto as he let go of Sasuke's chin and walked towards one of the windows.

"Yeah yeah, whatever kit," he said. "Let's just start training now shall we?"

Kyuubi ripped (not literally) the curtains apart and Sasuke stood with awe at the scenary behind it. "Outside" was a large field surrounded by a lush green forest and mountain range. The sun shone brightly overhead and there were even birds and forest animals could be seen scampering about. Sasuke looked at Naruto with disbelief.

"This is your mind?" he said and Naruto shrugged at him.

"It wasn't like that before," said the blond. "Before I found out about Kyuubi, he said that he had to sit in a dark prison with nothin' to do. Since it _is _my mind, I was able to change his prison from dull to ravishing"

Sasuke nodded then looked back at Kyuubi who gave him another bright smile. Sasuke blushed, pushed the window open, and jumped outside. Kyuubi watched him run across the field, excited but trying to hide it.

"Emthusiastic I see," he said with a smirk.

"Much like I was," said Naruto before leaping out after his friend.

Several weeks went by after the Uchiha massacre. Kyuubi had recommended that Sasuke would act avenger and be angry at the world because of his cruel fate (Kyuubi emphasized this by acting like a drama queen) and be withdrawn and socially-inept because of it. The said Uchiha had a tough time trying to maintain that image, since he didn't really hate his brother or the world, but Naruto helped since he was all too used to wearing a mask. To hide their true motives even further, Naruto and Sasuke even pretended to have had a fight that day after the massacre and Naruto even ranted to the Hokage that Sasuke was a prick and bastard and overall, wasn't very nice (Sarutobi pondered on how Naruto learned swear words). They would avoid each other in public but would secretly meet everyday to train in Naruto's mindscape. Besides, the villagers would hate Naruto even more for "bothering" the last Uchiha.

One particular night, after a good ten hours of training (in Naruto's mindscape and in the real world), Sasuke and Naruto layed down on the grass, exhausted at the intensity of Kyuubi's exercises.

"Hey, Naruto," said Sasuke.

"Nani?" said Naruto.

"How did you know about Kyuubi?"

Naruto was surprised by this simple question. Nobody really bothered asking him about his life, except for the Hokage and his teacher at the academy, Umino Iruka. When they do, however, Naruto would lie through his teeth, saying that life was grand even though it wasn't for the kid. But this time, if Sasuke would keep it a secret, maybe he'll just tell the truth.

". . . Promise you'll keep everything I tell you a secret Sasuke," said the jinchuuriki and Sasuke nodded. Naruto took a deep breath before speaking. ". . . Well, it was about two years ago, on my birthday. As usual, a mob of villagers chased me and beat me up like they do everyday, ever since I was kicked out of the orphanage, only this time it was ten times worse. They very nearly beat me to death, but I was saved by ANBU who were assigned to protect me, though I can't say they were doing a very good job seeing that most of them hated me as well. Anyway, I was knocked unconscious because of the beatings and that's when I appeared in my mindscape for the first time, in front of Kyuubi. I was really shocked to find out that I was his container, but I accepted it since the proof was right there in front of me. He - Kyuubi - told me about everything concerning me and him. He even told me who my parents were. I was really shocked and angry that the Hokage would keep something like this from me, but with help from Kyuu, I managed to surpress my anger and hide my true emotions. I molded the 'village idiot' mask because I knew that if I showed my true strength, the villagers would see me as a threat and the council would probably use me as a weapon. I really hate the villgers and everyone who hated me because of Kyuubi. How could've I been responsible for what Kyuubi did when I was just a newborn? People are really stupid and blind, ya' know?"

Sasuke stayed silent throughout Naruto's confession. Naruto's face was neutral, but inside he felt like crying. Telling someone about his troubles and what he really thought about his life felt really good (talking really does help^^!) but he still wanted to cry. He hated his life and he hated everything, but he had to endure even more because he still had dreams. Sasuke, on the other hand, felt sorry that Naruto had a really tough life. While he was living comfortably in the Uchiha clan estate with everything he could ever want, Naruto was living in the streets getting glares from passerbys and digging through the trash for a scrap of food. Imagine how many more children live like that.

"Naruto, you really have a tough life don't you?" said Sasuke.

"Aa," said Naruto and the two looked up to the sky, immersed in their own thoughts.

It was a moment before Sasuke spoke again.

"Ya' know, aniki and I used to do this alot before," he said.

"Do what?" asked Naruto.

"Stargaze," answered Sasuke. "He showed me the constellations and the zodiac and we'd play a game called 'Connect the Stars' where we'd make pictures by connecting the stars together."

"Hm," said Naruto. His eyes flitted throughout the sky, looking for a good picture, then he saw it.

"Look there," he said, pointing with a hand. Sasuke's eyes followed Naruto's finger and saw that it was pointing at the constellation, Gemini.

"That's Gemini, the twins," he said, looking at Naruto who shook his head.

"Not that. The one next to it, just above their heads,"

Sauke searched and saw a cluster of stars wound tightly together.

"Connect the stars," said Naruto and Sasuke did. It took a few tries to see the picture it made. Sasuke mouthed an "o" which Naruto saw.

"Doesn't it look like two hands holding each other?" asked the blond and Sasuke nodded. "Instead of twins, it's friends and those're their hands. The only time they'll stop being friends is when those hands let go of each other."

Sasuke looked up at Naruto, who was smiling. "Are we the friends up there?" he asked.

"Aa," said Naruto, still smiling. "We'll be the best of friends and we'll only stop being friends when those hands in the sky let go of each other."

"Is that a promise?"asked Sasuke, reaching out with two fingers.

"Aa," said Naruto, grasping Sasuke's two fingers with his own. "That's a promise."

And that was the start of their friendship. . .

**Emolette: KYA!!! NaruxSasu friendly love!!!**

**Sasuke: Hey! Why am I the uke!**

**Emolette: Sasu-kun, this isn't a yaoi, therefore, no one is either the seme or the uke.**

**Sasuke: But you put my name after Naruto's, meaning that he's the seme and I'm the uke!**

**Naruto: Well, you **_**are**_** SasUKE -snicker-**

**Sasuke: -glares-**

**Naruto: Eep! -hides behind Emolette-**

**Emolette: -sighs- Why can't the two of you get along like in my story?**

**Sasuke: -changes subject- This chapter was short. . .**

**Emolette: I'll make the next one longer!!! That's when the timeskip happens^^**

**Naruto: Ooh, is it time for the genin exams?**

**Emolette: Yup, and it's time to show them your true potential Naru-kun!!!**

**Naruto: Yosh!**

**Sasuke: Hn.**

**Emolette: -slaps Sasuke upside head-**

**Sasuke: What the fuck was that for?!**

**Emolette: For saying only one word! You're wasting precious typing space!**

**Naruto: -snickers-**

**Sasuke: -glares at Naruto-**

**Naruto: Eep! -hides behind Emolette again-**

**Emolette: 'Kay 'Kay, fillers. . . So, Sasuke starts training with Naruto and Kyuubi, who I made sweltering HOT!!!**

**Naruto & Sasuke: We really can't imagine what he looks like. . .**

**Emolette: -takes out manga book- This manga's title is "Yamatonageshiko Shichihenge" or in layman's terms "The Wallflower: Perfect Girl Evolution". You'll have to find out for yourself what kind of story it is but if. . . -flips through book and shows the two shinobi-. . . you take Kyohei, make his hair longer, give him claws and demon eyes, make him a redhead instead of a blond and put my kimono design on him, that's what Kyuubi'll look like, 'kay?**

**Naruto & Sasuke: Ooooooh. . . He is hot. . .**

**Emolette: I'll try to make a picture of him. . . have to get back on you some other day though. . . Anyhoo, I made Kyuubi a little OOC so he's alot nicer and hotter. . .^^**

**Sasuke: This girl's really wierd.**

**Naruto: She's your fangirl.**

**Sasuke: She's your fangirl too.**

**Emolette: Hope you liked it and REVIEW!!!**


	3. The Battle Tower

**Emolette: -sits in corner with a blue background and dark lines hovering over her head- A new chapter. . . woohoo. . .**

**Naruto: What's up with Emo-chan?**

**Sasuke: Like her namesake, she's getting all emo. . . she's finally brooding.**

**Emolette: I AM NOT BROODING!!!. . . I'm just thinking gloomily. . . pondering moodily. . .**

**Sasuke: Yeeeeaaaah. . . that's brooding.**

**Emolette: T.T I hate everything!**

**Sasuke: So do I -joins Emolette in corner and broods-**

**Naruto: -sweatdrops- Well. . . since those two are busy brooding, I guess I'll start the chapter off. . . and remember, Emolette does not own me. . .**

**Chapter Three**

**" The Battle Tower "**

Five Year Later:

Naruto listened to the sounds around him as he pretended to sleep on his desk. The chattering of his classmates, the thumping of their feet on the wooden floor, the squealing of Sasuke's fangirls, the snoring of Nara Shikamaru who was asleep as always, the crunching of Akimichi Chouji's potato chips as he munched away, Sasuke tapping on the desk with his pencil. . .

_Tapping?_

Naruto looked up "sleepily" and casually swept his eyes over the room. His cerulean pair landed on Sasuke onyx pair and then traveled down to the pencil that Sasuke was tapping against the wooden surface of the desk. About two years ago, Naruto and Sasuke had developed their own secret code they could use in class, or almost anywhere, without anyone noticing. Since most shinobi, like ANBU and jounin, would probably know morse code, they had to revise it and add binary code to the mix. All you needed was a pencil, or any type of writing material actually or even a stick and you have to tap the ends on a surface. The pointed end or writing end stands for 1 while the erasing end or flat end stands for 0. Though it took a long time to even make a sentence, it'll make you look like you were just absentmindingly tapping your pencil and that's exactly what Sasuke looked like he was doing.

_"You've "slept" long enough. Iruka will be here any minute."_

Naruto nodded once to show that he understood and he started to stretch as if he just woke up from a good nap.

"Yosh! That was really refreshing!" he cried, adding to the effect.

"You better stop sleeping in class or you'll get dumb," said Naruto's seatmate, Inuzuka Kiba, with a dog grin (as opposed to Naruto's "fox grin").

"I don't hear you saying that to Shikamaru," argued Naruto and that was met with a particularly loud snore from the Nara who was sitting in the row behind them.

"You got a point there," said the Inuzuka and Akamaru, Kiba's puppy, barked from beneath his master's bomber jacket.

Usually, pets aren't allowed in school, but there was special exception for Inuzukas. They always have to be with their familiar because it was tradition and most of their jutsu can't be executed without their animal partners. Naruto noticed that he had never fought an Inuzuka and niether have Sasuke. In fact, niether of them really fought in a while. There were useless shinobis in their class except for those who were part of clans, and they never really tested their strength except against each other or Kyuubi.

**Why don't you go test your skills out?**

_What do you mean Kyuu?_

**You know what I mean. Go on a fighting spree and test your skills. You have my permission, both of you, and you can show off your skills as much as you want, but not too much.**

_Okay then. Now the question is where?_

**I'll handle that minor detail. Tell the Uchiha gaki.**

Naruto mentally nodded and picked up his pencil, "absentmindingly" tapping it on his desk. Sasuke noticed it and interpreted it in a flash (or as soon as Naruto finished tapping it out).

_"Kyuubi says it's time to go out and test our skills. He'll let us in on the details later. We'll meet at the spot, nine o'clock tonight."_

Sasuke nodded without being too obvious to those around him and immediately snapped to attention when Iruka stepped into the room with a greeting of "Good afternoon" (it was just after lunchtime).

_Time to test our skills huh? Finally, I thought we'd never be able to stretch our legs. . . I wonder where we're goin'?_

Both Sasuke and Naruto smirked at the thought. If anyone truly knew what they were capable of, they would cower in fear. Ah, power in the hands of the youth is truly frightening.

School was over. Naruto and Sasuke calmly walked out of the academy grounds (with Sasuke being stalked by his fangirls). Even though they didn't show it, they were both excited about the night ahead of them. They didn't bother to train because they knew they were able to handle anything that came their way.

Both preteens decided to rest first. It might be a long night and they still had class the next morning, so it was best to build up their strength. Sasuke made his way to the Uchiha estate (which he still lived in despite the memories of the masscre) and Naruto trudged to his crappy apartment.

Slamming the door behind him (because just looking at the apartment complex annoyed him), Naruto walked into his apartment and hurriedly went to his room to take off the horrible excuse for clothes that was his bright orange jumpsuit. Shutting the thick curtains that adorned his windows to make the room more darker, Naruto stripped off his jumpsuit and pulled on a black shirt and shorts. He slumped onto his bed, bouncing up and down for a moment before becoming still again, and closed his eyes, ready for sleep to overtake him. When he was younger, he'd usually be too excited to sleep, but Kyuubi taught him how to empty his mind and listen to the sounds around him blend into one. Soon enough, Naruto fell asleep.

The same went for Sasuke. He arrived to his empty clan home and went to his room. He closed the curtains of his windows and pulled on a blue shirt and grey sweatpants before laying down on his bed, using the same technique Naruto used to fall asleep. He was looking forward to tonight. . . he was planning to test his new Mangekyou Sharingan. . .

Two blurs quietly jumped through the trees of the forest that surrounded Konoha, barely making a sound as they landed on branch after branch, hurrying towards their destination. The moon overhead was shrouded by a large cloud, concealing the faces of these two blurs that jumped side-by-side. They didn't seem like enemies for they were jumping together and heading towards the same direction, never changing pace, going in a steady jump cycle. The two were in the thickest and oldest part of the forest, which was a considerable distance away from the village and from prying eyes, which was an ideal place for the two blurs to train and keep their secrets to theirselves.

Soon, the two blurs came up upon a large ancient tree that wasn't exactly the tallest in the forest, but the trunk was as thick as the Hokage Tower. The two landed right at the base of the tree, just as the cloud that covered the moon shifted and moonlight shone down onto the two previous blurs, revealing the young faces of Naruto and Sasuke. Both faces showed no emotion, but excitement coursed through their veins as did blood.

"Kai," said Naruto and Sasuke as they simultaneously did a hand sign. At once, the ancient tree in front of them seemed to flicker and a treehouse appeared on its branches, hidden by a well performed genjutsu. Sasuke and Naruto jumped up onto the porch of what they called the Main House, which was the largest house that sat inbetween the other two that extended on each side.

It was roughly five years ago. After nearly being caught training together, Kyuubi said that it wasn't safe for them to be training out in public (ala the training fields). So Naruto and Sasuke decided to go exploring. They traveled deep into the forest and found a worn-down treehouse on the large ancient tree they were in now. With Kyuubi's help, they fixed it up to be their sanctuary where they could train without being disturbed. They would also sometimes sleep there and it was like their second home. But now, they were in a hurry to get ready for whatever Kyuubi has in store for them.

The main house was divided into three sections. The first section was almost half of the house and it was like a locker room for Naruto and Sasuke. There were two lockers on either side with a small bench sitting in front of it and a desk and chair off to the side. The other two sections were for the generator and kitchen. Naruto and Sasuke went to their respective locker and rummaged through it, taking out clothes to exchange for the ones they were wearing.

Before changing clothes, Naruto and Sasuke did a hand sign once again and there was a "poof" sound as they were engulfed in a cloud of smoke. When the cloud disappeared, the two preteens were replaced by two taller, seemingly older versions of themselves.

Naruto's sun-kissed hair, though still spikey, was now longer, reaching to the nape of his neck with his bangs falling over his cerulean eyes, which were more pointed and serious-looking. The whisker-like marks on his cheeks were jagged and more defined then when he was younger, and his face was now angular with no more baby fat bulging from his cheeks. Naruto's body was also different. He stood three inches taller then before and his slightly flabby body was now a bit muscular for his age. He no longer looked like the goofy idiot everyone knew him as.

Sasuke's raven-black hair was also longer then before. His bangs reached an inch below his chin and cockatoo hairstyle extended a hand's length behind his head. His onyx eyes were also more pointed, but instead of the angry, selfish, prideful jerk image he emitted through his mask, these eyes seemed kinder and merciful, though still capable of showing no emotion. Sasuke's face was also free of any baby fat, giving him a defined jaw and slightly prominent chin, and his body was just as muscular as Naruto's.

They both looked older then they really were. And they both discarded their masks, just for tonight.

"What kind of weapons should we bring?" asked Sasuke breaking the silence. Even though his appearance changed, his voice remained the same.

"Kyuu said bring any kind of weapon we want," said Naruto, his voice also the same but just not as loud. "Just as long as they can't trace us with it."

Sasuke smirked. "I wonder who 'they' are," he replied.

Naruto also smirked. "Kyuu says we'll find out soon enough."

They continued getting ready, checking if their clothes were okay and deciding which weapons to bring. They also went around the treehouse, checking the traps that they had laid (in the event that there is an intruder) and memorizing where everything was before jumping out of their sanctuary and reactivating the genjutsu that hid it.

"Keep traveling north, says Kyuu," said Naruto, pulling on a black mask that covered half of his face **(a/n: think Kakashi's mask)** and a red fox mask that looked eeringly similar to Kyuubi.

"Lead the way," said Sasuke, pulling on his own black mask that covered half his face and a black raven mask.

The two jumped away, adrenaline already rushing through their body. They were getting restless and their excitement just grew.

". . . One-twenty. . .one-twenty-one. . .one-twenty-two. . .one-twenty-three. . .one-twenty-four. . ."

A large muscular man with a deep tan and and wearing armor that was similar to what Konoha's Black Ops Squads wore was on the grassy ground, doing push-ups with only one hand. He was already past one-hundred and he still wasn't tired. He was restless and was eager for tonight's festivities to start. His partner, a blue-haired teen with a claymore on his back and wearing a khaki cloak sat near him on a rock with a bored expression on his face.

"When will it start, Genryu?" whined the teen.

"Don't ask me like I know Shin," answered Genryu, getting annoyed. "It always starts at eleen o'clock sharp, so if it's not eleven, then it won't start."

"Pfft, I was just asking," whined Shin once more. "You don't have to be so cranky."

A tick appeared on Genryu's forehead, but he let out his anger by doing his push-ups even faster.

The two were waiting for an important event, an event that occured every night for the past twenty years. This event was called "The Battle Tower" where fighters from all over come and test their strength against each other. Genryu have competed, and lost, for the past five years and Shin has come for the first time. The two were restless because they were both confident that they will win, even if it meant fighting each other.

"Hey, people are coming," said Shin, looking up into the trees and Genryu stopped his push-ups.

"Are they strong?" he asked, standing up. Unlike Shin, Genryu couldn't sense chakra.

"I don't think so," said Shin with a shake of his head. "It's wierd, I know they're there, but I can't measure their chakra."

As soon as Shin said that, a hard wind blew and a swirl of leaves appeared in front of Shin and Genryu with two figures appearing in it. The two figures were short and wore animal masks, like the ANBU, but one was black and the other was red. The one with the red fox mask wore a long red coat, with black flames on the hem, that was open at the front to show a black sweatshirt underneath that covered his neck, black pants tied at the ankles with bandages, black ninja sandals, and on his hands were metal gauntlets that covered most of his forearms. His companion, the one with the black raven mask, wore a black coat with red flames on the hem, had a large neckband (covering half of his face and mask) and three large buckles on the chest, black pants also tied at the ankles with bandages, black ninja sandals, and fingerless gloves with a metal plating on the back of the hand. They didn't carry any visible weapons, but that didn't mean they didn't have any. They both had a kunai pack on their right leg and a fanny pouch, like all ninjas carry.

"That was quite an entrance," said Genryu, smoothing his brown hair that was messed up from the wind.

The two figures were silent for a moment, then the red one spoke. "Where is the Battle Tower?" he asked. His voice came out as metallic and raspy. A voice changer perhaps.

"Wouldn't you like to know," said Shin with a sneer, but inside, he was wary of the two masked figures.

" . . . Never mind," said the fox, turning to his companion. "Just keep going north he says."

"Then let's go," said the raven with the same raspy metallic voice.

The fox nodded, then turned back to Shin and Genryu. "I'd say thanks, but you weren't really much help," he said and he and his companion disappeared in another gust of wind and swirl of leaves.

"Tch, I hate ninjas," said Genryu, smoothing out his hair again.

"If I can't measure their chakra, then it must mean they're weak," said Shin, fingering his claymore. "I wouldn't want to waste my time on them."

Genryu said nothing. Somehow, he doubted his partner's words.

"One minute to eleven o'clock," said Naruto through his voice changer in his fox mask, looking up at a twenty story tower that stood in front of him and Sasuke. "We made good time."

"What's the objective?" asked Sasuke.

"Get to the top floor where a treasure chest waits," said Naruto, repeating Kyuubi's words. "On each floor, there is a fighter waiting. We must defeat them. We also have to defeat the other fighters that are participating, if neccessary."

"What's in the chest?"

"Kyuubi says we'll find out when we get there. Since there are so many people here, he assumes that no one had triumphed in getting the object in the chest. The fighters here think its a chest full of gold, but that's just a rumor."

Sasuke "hn-ed" under his masks before looking around. There was indeed many fighters. Most of them were weak, just ordinary thugs and bandits who think they can measure up to a shinobi, and few were actually skillful-looking and barely any of them looked like they could put up a fight. Sasuke sighed through his nose. If he had to fight these weaklings, he was better off fighting off his fangirls at the academy.

"The doors are opening," said Naruto and Sasuke snapped his head around.

The ground floor of the tower had many doors lining the walls, which were all slowly opening to reveal darkness extending inside. As soon as the doors were fully open, all the fighters rushed inside and Naruto and Sasuke ran into the nearest one.

_I hope there are might make this more interesting,_ thought Sasuke.

It was completely dark in the hallway, but the two preteens had no trouble seeing. Sasuke had activated his fully developed sharingan before entering and Naruto's eyes can adjust to any darkness or brightness quicker then ordinary eyes. It also helps that he can use the sound waves around him to navigate in the dark, sort of like echolocation.

The two came to a fork in the dark hallway and they immediately turned right for they sensed a presense towards that direction. After a minute of running, Naruto stepped onto a switch that activated a trap. Arrows started shooting out from the walls and the two ninjas quickened their pace, barely moving to dodge the arrows.

"Too easy," said Naruto and Sasuke smirked.

They came to another fork in the hallway and they took the left this time, activating another trap that made walls fall from the ceiling to seal off the hallway. Again, the two were too fast for the falling walls and they exited the hallway into a large room lit with torches **(a/n: no, it's not Orochimaru's lair)**. The two looked around and saw a lone figure sitting at the far end of the room. It was a young man with defined muscles and slicked back black hair. His eyes were a deathly grey color and he wore black pants and a red vest with no undershirt.

"The first fighter I assume?" said Naruto and the man nodded.

"The name's Kazu," said the man, standing up and dusting off his bottom. "You're the first here. You must be really good."

"And since you're the first fighter, you must be pretty weak," said Sasuke and Kazu glared at him.

"I'll show you who's weak," he hissed. "Who am I gonna defeat first?" he added with a smirk.

"Him," said Naruto and Sasuke simultaneously, pointing at each other. They both sighed, then shook their fists. "Rock, paper, scissors!" they cried. Sasuke had scissors and Naruto had rock.

"Damn!" said Sasuke, punching the air in frustration.

"You scared that you have to fight someone like me?" said Kazu with a sneer.

"No," said Sasuke, walking forwards. "I'm _disappointed_ that I have to fight a weak guy like you."

Kazu death glared Sasuke, then he raised a fist and charged at the masked Uchiha.

"If you won't shut that arrogant mouth, I'll shut it for you!" he cried and he brought his fist up to Sasuke's face, making contact with a sickly crunch. Kazu smirked, thinking that he did get to shut the masked shinobi's face up, but that smirk was wiped from his face when he sensed a presense behind him.

"Who're you punching?" asked Sasuke and before Kazu could turn around and face him, Sasuke gave him a taste of his own punch.

Sasuke's fist collided with Kazu's face in an even louder and more sickly crunch and Kazu was sent flying across the room, crashing through two pillars, and finally lodging himsellf two feet inside the wall.

"That was easier then easy," commented Sasuke and Naruto chuckled.

"I hope there're more stronger fighters ahead," said the blond, running towards the door opposite them.

"I sort of doubt it and sort of hope so too," said Sasuke, following his best friend.

The two proceeded to the second floor of the dark building, activating traps that were too easy for them to evade. They didn't meet up with any fighters until they got to an identical room like the one where they met Kazu. In there was their next opponent. This battle tower was way too easy for them.

It was probably nearing midnight now, an hour after the doors to the tower opened. Genryu thought this was way too easy. He wanted to fight the fighters on each flloor, not the weak thugs and bandits that participated, but whenever he and Shin arrived in the battle rooms, they found that someone had already beat them to it. The first fighter, Kazu, was knocked out and lodged into the wall. A couple others were in the same condidtion and quite a few were cut up pretty badly, oozing blood in a pool around them. One was even suspended on a web of string, dripping blood onto the floor as he hung. Genryu didn't need to wonder who did this for he had a pretty good suspiscion already.

"The top floor!" cried Shin next to him with a big grin on his face as they neared the staircase to the last floor.

_And those two are probably there,_ thought Gneryu and he surpressed a shudder.

"Gah!" cried Ryuki, Naruto's opponent as said blond plunged a kunai though his stomach. Blood splattered everywhere, even on Naruto's coat as he pulled out the kunai. The silver-haired Ryuki fell to the floor, slowly dying if not already dead.

"Easy as one two three," said Naruto, wiping the bloodied kunai on his coat before replacing it in his pouch.

"Why did you have to fight the last one?" half whined and half pouted Sasuke, crossing his arms. "I'm sure he was the most powerful."

"At least you got the second most powerful," said Naruto, walking up to his friend. "And besides, you got the first one and since there was an equal number of fighters, that meant I got the last one."

Sasuke stuck out his upper lip behind his masks and he knew Naruto sensed that for the blond chuckled.

"You're such a child Sasuke," he said.

"I was just playin' with ya' dude," said Sasuke, playfully punching Naruto in the arm. "Anyway, we might as well get our prize."

Sasuke nodded towards the small chest that sat on the other side of the room and Naruto nodded also. The two went up to it and stared down on it, savoring the moment. . . oh to hell with it. Naruto bent down and opened it without any hesitation.

"What the hell is that?" asked Sasuke, bending over Naruto and looking into the open chest. Inside was a couple of bottles and a worn-out leather book that was already cracked and aged, but still looked well-preserved.

Before Naruto could asked Kyuubi, a shout came from behind them. Naruto and Sasuke whirled around and saw the two people they had met in the forest.

"So the two of you are here," said Shin, glaring at the masked shinobis.

"I don't see anyone else here," said Naruto, tucking the small chest under his arm and standing up.

"Where's the gold?" asked Genryu, his voice gruff.

"There's no gold," said Sasuke, straightening up. "That was just a rumor to lure fighters here."

"Bullshit!" cried Shin, unsheathing his claymore. "You're just hiding it from us! If you won't hand it over, then we'll just take it from you!"

Shin charged at Naruto, raising his giant sword above his head, but Naruto lazily took out a kunai and easily blocked the blow.

"How - ?" asked a shocked Shin and Naruto smirked under his masks.

"Your sword may be big, but you have little skill with it," said Naruto, sliding the kunai up and down the blade of the claymore, making small sparks appear. "To me, you're just a monkey waving around a measly stick."

Shin death glared Naruto and the blond's smirk got larger under his masks.

"I want to go home, so let me finish this quickly," he said, effortlessly pushing Shin a few feet away from him. Shin nearly fell over from the strength of Naruto's push.

_He's strong,_ thought the blunet.

"Don't hog all the fun!" cried Sasuke and Naruto looked at him.

"You can take the big lug," said Naruto and the two friends didn't notice the tick that appeared on both Shin's and Genryu's heads.

_How dare they talk as if I'm not here!_ they both thought.

"I wanted to try the mangekyou all night," said Sasuke. "It'll be quicker then you fighting."

Naruto shrugged. "Fine, do whatever you want. I've been wanting to see your mangekyou anyway."

Sasuke grinned under his masks and he stepped forward.

"Taking us on together?" said Genryu, raising his fist that sported steel knuckles. "That's a bad idea."

"I'll take on the both of you at the same time," said Sasuke, stepping forward. "Bad idea or not."

"Then lets not wait another second!" cried Shin, charging forward. Genryu followed suit and they jumped up and fell towards Sasuke. Sasuke easily side-stepped them and the two crashed onto the floor, cracking thw wood around them. Without hesitation, Sasuke appeared behind them and landed a swift kick on the back of their heads. With a grunt, the two flew into the wall and, like Kazu and some others, was lodged in there.

"D-Damnit!" rasped Shin. He could feel that he had broken several bones, including his ribs that made it difficult for him to breath.

_With just a kick he managed to do that much damage to us? _thought Genryu, also having trouble breathing because of broken ribs. _Just who are these guys?_

"Now, let's see what my new sharingan can do," said Sasuke, walking up to his defeated opponents and taking off his raven mask but he was wearing another mask under it that covered half of his face. His eyes, on the other hand, coud be clearly seen and they were blood red and had three tomoes in them. Both Shin and Genryu had no idea what is was, but their instincts told them it was going to cause them alot of pain.

Sasuke closed his eyes for one second. "Mangekyou Sharingan!" he cried as he opened them again and the ordinary sharingan with three tomoes changed into an atom with three hoops. Shin and Genryu made the mistake of looking into those eyes.

Then the night was pierced with two blood curdling screams that resounded in the air.

**Naruto: Cliffhanger!**

**Emolette: I only did that because I'm too lazy and I was busy brooding.**

**Naruto: Did you rush through it?**

**Emolette: . . . Maybe. . . Fight scenes are not my cup of tea. . .**

**Naruto: -sigh- I don't know what to do with you.**

**Emolette: You can screw me if you want. I won't fight back.**

**Naruto: O.O Uh. . .**

**Sasuke: I'll do it! I need revenge on you after you made me say "dude" and punch the dobe playfully in the arm! -drags Emolette into another room-**

**Emolette: But I thought it was cute! -sigh- While I get screwed by Sasuke, go ahead and review if you want.**

**Naruto: O.o I don't know if this girl is wierd or just plain crazy. . .-screams come from the room where Sasuke dragged Emolette in-. . . O.O WTF?!**

**. . . To be continued. . .**


	4. The Book

**Naruto: O.O Um. . . In the last chapter, Sasuke and I went to this battle tower and Sasuke used his mangekyou sharingan. Also, Sasuke dragged Emolette into another where he'll "screw" her.**

**Emolette: Sa-su-ke! -scream-**

**Naruto: OMG! -bursts into room- SASUKE! DON'T RAPE THE AUTHOR!**

**(Sasuke is seen sitting on the floor in front of Emolette, holding a screw to her arm where a small trickle of blood was dripping)**

**Naruto: O.O; What the hell are you doing Sasuke?**

**Emolette: He's screwing me of course.**

**Naruto: He's screwing. . . a screw. . . in your arm?**

**Emolette: Yeah. It hurts like hell, but it feels good. -sadistic grin-**

**Naruto: -faints-**

**Emolette: What's up with him?**

**Sasuke: -pokes Naruto with a stick- I think he thought I was going to screw you in the sexual way.**

**Emolette: Ew! I belive in sex **_**after**_** marraige, even if it's with you Sasu-kun.**

**Sasuke: But in your mind you make me and Naruto - mmph!**

**Emolette: -hand covers Sasuke's mouth- Ahehe, don't listen to him folks! He just forgot to take his emo pills this morning. Anyway, chapter four!**

**Chapter Four**

**" The Book "**

". . . Nearly a hundred years ago, the great ninja countries didn't exist. In fact, the only ninjas were those from clans and they were all identified with their own symbol and some had bloodline limits," said Iruka, writing the information on the chalkboard. He stopped writing for a moment and turned around to look at his students. Barely half the class was listening and Shikamaru was snoring up a storm.

_Am I really that boring?_ thought Iruka.

"EVERYONE WAKE UP!!!" cried Iruka, doing his patented Big Headed Jutsu and all the students jerked awake, even Shikamaru.

"I hate that stupid jutsu," mumbled Naruto, rubbing sleep from his eyes, but Iruka heard that comment.

"Naruto!" he cried and Naruto stood up.

"Hai Iruka-sensei!" he said, doing a salute.

"Name clans that have survived the ninja wars and are still here today," said Iruka. _Naruto would probably get this wrong, as usual._ he added in his mind.

"Hai Iruka-sensei," said Naruto, lowering his arm and looking serious which made Iruka raise an eyebrow. "Some of the most powerful clans that are still here today and reside in Konoha are Aburame, Akimichi, Hyuga, Inuzuka, Nara, and Yamanaka. The Uchiha clan is also in this list but they have. . . died out in one night save for two." Naruto risked a glance at Sasuke who glared at him (his act as always). "There is also the Senju clan, the clan of the first and second Hokage, but they too have died out with one surviving member by the name of Tsunade, whose current location is unknown."

Everyone stared at Naruto with wide eyes (except Sasuke). They all had one thought in mind. . . when did Naruto get so smart?

"Uh, well," said Iruka, looking perplexed. "That is correct Naruto. You may sit down now."

Naruto sat down wtih a sigh and his seatmate, Aburame Shino, turned his head sideways.

". . . When did _you_ get so smart Uzumaki?" asked the Aburame, raising an eyebrow behind his round sunglasses.

". . . When did _you_ learn how to talk Aburame?" was Naruto's reply and Shino was slightly taken aback.

_I'll have to watch out for him. It looks like he's been holding back for all these years._ he thought.

Inside Naruto's mind:

**I thought you wanted to hide your intelligence until after you graduate.**

_I'm sick of hiding. I'll show who I truly am when I graduate, but right now, I'll just leak out my knowledge little by little._

**Alright, I won't stop you. but still, be careful kit.**

_Aa._

_RIIIIIIIIIINNNNNGGGGG!!!!!!!_

It was the end of class. Naruto waited for everyone else to go before leaving himself. He had actually paid attention, written notes, and answered questions in class today. Though he thought that everything they teach in the academy was useless (Where are they gonna use the History of Konoha in a battle? Are they gonna lecture their opponent to death?), he still wanted to know things like that. Though he had never said it to anyone, Naruto like to learn and read about alot of things, especially about history. He thinks that knowing about what happened in the past would make a better future. Besides, he had to learn these things if he wanted to Hokage.

Naruto packed up all of his things and left the classroom. He and Sasuke were to meet at the spot and look through that book they got from the Battle Tower. Last night they didn't really have time for they fell asleep once they got to the treehouse and when they woke, they were nearly late for school.

In the courtyard outside of the academy, Naruto saw Sasuke surrounded by his fangirls as usual. When he passed by, all the girls glared at him. He guessed that they didn't like the dobe answering a question instead of Sasuke. Making sure that his fangirls weren't looking, Sasuke gave Naruto a shrug and that was returned with an understanding smile.

"Look at that dobe," said Haruno Sakura, a pink-haired girl, as she glared at Naruto. "He thinks he's better then Sasuke-kun. Only Sasuke-kun is the best, ne Sasuke-kun?"

Sakura clung onto Sasuke's arm, but Sasuke jerked himself away.

"Get away from me," he snapped. Whenever anyone insults his best friend, his mask becomes his face for just a brief moment. "What do you know? You're all just a bunch of stupid girls and you don't deserve to be kunoichi! Do me a favor and go hang yourselves!"

Sasuke wrenched himself out of the his circle of shocked fangirls and stormed away, his anger level going up.

_Stupid girls. Why are they even in the academy when all they do is drool over me?_

Making sure that no one was watching, Sasuke jumped onto the rooftops and towards the forest where he knew Naruto was waiting.

Sasuke found Naruto doing sit-ups when he arrived at the treehouse. Well, maybe we shouldn't call them sit-ups when Naruto was hanging upside down from the ceiling with hundred pound weights on his wrists and around his torso.

"Sorry about that," said Sasuke, looking up at Naruto, who had already dropped his henge.

"I told you years ago you don't have to apologize for what your fangirls do," said Naruto inbetween grunts. "Anyway, drop your henge and we'll go see Kyuu."

Sasuke nodded and dropped his henge. Naruto lightly dropped down from the ceiling and he and Sasuke sat on the floor in front of each other. Sasuke looked into Naruto's eyes and was immediately sucked into the blond's mindscape, landing in Kyuubi's cream-colored suite with the ceiling-high windows that let a breeze in from the mountainous scenary outside.

"So, where's the book?" said Kyuubi, who was sitting on one of the windowsills and wearing his usual black kimono.

Naruto tossed the aged book towards Kyuubi, who caught it with one hand.

"What kind of book is it anyway?" asked Sasuke.

"It's a book written by a demon colleague of mine about fifty years ago," said Kyuubi, flipping through the book. "I hid it in that tower about twenty years ago, saying that it was full of gold to see if anyone was worthy enough to open that chest, which'll only open at the touch of someone who has a high chakra level." Naruto smirked at this. _So Kyuubi planned this all along._ "Anyway, it's a book of potions that ranges from permanent chakra deprivation to poisons that can melt your insides, like acid." Kyuubi grinned evilly at this and both Naruto and Sasuke sweatdropped at his sadisticity. "But I'm looking for a certain potion that will help our young Uchiha here."

Sasuke raised an eyebrow. "A potion that will help me?" he asked.

"You and your brother to be precise," said Kyuubi, still flipping through the book.

"Why? What's wrong with us?" asked Sasuke, trying to hide his worry but barely succeeded for both Kyuubi and Naruto sensed it.

"You do know what the side effect of the Mangekyou Sharingan is?" asked Kyuubi, peering at Sasuke over the book **(a/n: kinda like Kakashi, ne?)**.

"Of course," said Sasuke.

"The Mangekyou Sharingan may be a powerful, but the side effect is that with constant use, the user will go blind," said Kyuubi, idily turning a page in the book. "The only way to prevent that is to take the eyes of your sibling who also has a fully developed sharingan and merge it with your own, therefore creating a whole new sharingan and negating any side effect. Would you do that to your brother Sasuke?"

"Hell no!" cried Sasuke, looking at Kyuubi as if he was insane. "I would never do that to my aniki!"

"I thought so," said Kyuubi, marking a page in the book and tossing it back to Naruto, who caught it. "That page I marked is a potion that will be able to negate the side effects of any jutsu, but it will take a long while to make it and getting the ingredients alone will be tough. You two up for it?"

"Anything to help aniki," said Sasuke.

"Anything to help Sasuke and Itachi-niisan," said Naruto.

"Good, now off you go," said Kyuubi with a wave of his hand. "You won't be able to start on it now for you two are still in the academy and most of the ingredients are in some far off places, but when you graduate we can probably start on it."

Naruto and Sasuke nodded, then they were outside of the mindscape and in the treehouse again. The book was sitting inbetween them and the two preteens made a mad grab for it.

"The Side-Effect Negation Potion?" said Sasuke, who won the brawl and was sitting on top Naruto. "That figures," he added with an eye roll.

"Get off of me will 'ya!" cried Naruto from under Sasuke, struggling under his friend's weight.

"Ice from an ice jutsu, the blood of a dragon, silver from a mine?" said Sasuke, scanning the list of ingredients. "Where are we going to get this stuff?"

"We're not supposed to, at least not yet," said Naruto, still struggling. "Sasuke! I can't breath!"

Sasuke got off of Naruto and the blond gasped for air.

_Will this really help me and aniki so we won't get blind? But even with that problem fixed, how are we going to get aniki back into Konoha without the council executing him?_

Sasuke hated the council as much as Naruto did. That's why, when Naruto becomes Hokage, there is going to be alot of changes in Konoha and Sasuke will help.

"Sasuke," said Naruto, standing up and approaching his friend.

"Hm?" said Sasuke, turnig around and facing Naruto, only to get tackled by the blond junchuuriki.

"I'll get you for sitting on me like I was a freakin' cushion!" cried the blond and he started tickling the Uchiha.

"St-Stop Naruto! No! Don't! Mm - Bwahahahahaha!!!"

**Sasuke: That was a crappy ending.**

**Emolette: T.T I know! I was having writers block on this chapter because I was thinking if I should introduce an OC for you Sasu-kun.**

**Sasuke: An OC for me?**

**Emolette: Yeah, 'cuz you know I hate SasuxSaku. I'm more of a GaaxSaku kind of girl. I barely like Sakura but if she's together with Gaara-kun, then that leaves you free to be together with my OC!**

**Gaara: -appears in a swirl of sand- Did someone say my name?**

**Emolette: -gasps- Gaa-kun! -glomps Gaara-**

**Sasuke: -sweatdrop-**

**Gaara: -tiny blush appears on his cheeks- I've never been glomped before.**

**Sasuke: But you have tons of fangirls since you're Kazekage now.**

**Gaara- -blush gets bigger- But they never actually had the courage to glomp me.**

**Sasuke: Figures.**

**Emolette: What're you doing here anyway Gaa-kun? You're not supposed to appear until chapter eleven.**

**Gaara: Really? Then I guess I should be going and wait until chapter eleven then.**

**Emolette: Wait! Bring Naru-kun to Sakura. He's still knocked out.**

**Naruto: .**

**Gaara: 'Kay. -wraps Naruto carefully in his sand and walks away-**

**Emolette: Awwww! Gaara's so cute when he's shy! He's like a little boy!**

**Sasuke: And what does that make me?**

**Emolette: Hm. . . jealous?**

**Sasuke: No!**

**Emolette: Denial is the first sign of guilt Sasu-kun. Anyhoo, I'll let the readers decide. Should I introduce an OC for SasuxOC or should I just push any Sasuke pairing out of my head because there's no way in hell that I'm going to make a SasuxSaku. I'll let you decide dear readers!**

**Sasuke: If you end up making an OC, I hope you'll make her attractive to me.**

**Emolette: Of course I will! The next chapter will be better because that's when Naruto and Sasuke show off their power, and friendship, a little. Yay!**

**Sasuke: I liked it better when she was brooding. . .**


	5. Graduation

**Emolette: New chappie!**

**Naruto: -groans- I hate you very much.**

**Sasuke: Back from Sakura?**

**Naruto: Yeah. After she fixed me up, she asked Gaara if he would like to eat lunch with her and he agreed.**

**Emolette: Yay! My plan worked!**

**Sasuke: So you asked Gaara to take Naruto to Sakura to play matchmaker?**

**Emolette: Yup! And it worked! Yay!**

**Naruto: -rolls eyes-**

**Sasuke: So, did you decide if you're going to pair me up with an OC?**

**Emolette: Too early to say. Now, let's see you and Naruto show your stuff in the genin exams!**

**Naruto: Woot! Let's go!**

**Sasuke: Hn.**

**Emolette: -angry vein and slaps Sasuke upside the head-**

**Sasuke: OW! What the fuck!**

**Emolette: -grins- That's better!**

**Sasuke: -grumbles-**

**Chapter Five**

**" Graduation "**

It has been two weeks since Naruto and Sasuke went the Battle Tower and found the potions book. In those two weeks, Naruto has slowly been releasing his hidden knowledge and had even gotten a perfect score on a pop quiz while the class brainiac, Sakura, only got a 99. Sasuke has also made an effort to show his true self, helping a couple of his classmates who were having trouble with a jutsu and being nice to Naruto (though he always nice to him when not in public). Everyone who knew them got the crazy idea that the real Naruto and Sasuke were kidnapped and the two who were in their place were imposters, but they didn't have any proof to prove that.

On the Friday of the second week was the genin exams and everyone was both nervous and excited. Well, everyone except Naruto and Sasuke who knew that they were going to pass with flying colors. Maybe Shino too but it was difficult to know what Aburames were thinking since they were so quiet and stoic.

"Now, we will start off with a written exam," said Iruka that morning, holding up a bundle of papers and all the students groaned. "You have one hour to answer it. You may begin when you get your paper."

Naruto stared at the paper that was placed in front of him. It had simple questions (simple for him at least) and he answered all fifty questions in fifteen minutes. He set his pencil down and waited for Sasuke to finish. Five minutes later, Sasuke set his pencil down and Naruto tapped out a message.

_"Took you long enough"_

Sasuke smirked and tapped back a reply.

_I'm not as studious as you'_

Naruto smirked and returned to staring at the clock. Forty minutes and they'll go out to the courtyard to test their physical skills.

In the courtyard, the students were spread out and were chattering loudly. Iruka had to do his big-headed jutsu to quiet them down.

"Now," he said, clearing his throat with a small cough. "This part of the exam is to test your accuracy. When I call your name, come up to the ten meter mark and throw your weapons onto the target dummies."

Naruto rolled his eyes. _This is more boring then I thought_. He looked around for Sasuke and saw him surrounded by his fangirls as usual.

"Tch. They won't last ten seconds in a battle," Naruto mumbled to himself.

"D-D-Does that i-include m-me N-Naruto-k-kun?" said a soft voice and Naruto looked to his right to see Hyuga Hinata, twiddling her fingers next to him.

"Of course not Hinata-chan," said Naruto with a kind smile. "You're the only girl in our class who doesn't drool over Sasuke and you're also part of the Hyuga clan, so I'm sure your **Jyuken** is awesome."

Hinata's face turned into a tomato and she twiddled her fingers in shyness.

"Th-That's n-n-ot t-true," she said timidly. 'M-my cousin is m-much stronger th-then me and m-m-my father th-thinks I'm w-weak, so h-he tr-trains my little s-sister i-instead of me. H-He th-thinks I'm w-worthless."

"Don't say that Hinata-chan," said Naruto, putting a hand on Hinata's shoulder, therefore making her blush an even deeper red (if that was possible). "You'll pass the exams and you'll be a great kunoichi, unlike the other girls here. You just have to train harder and maybe you should consider learning some medical jutsus, so you'll be of even more use to your team. And also, don't be shy to ask your sensei for help. Prove your father, and everyone else who doubts you, wrong and show them you're strong, okay?"

Hinata looked into Naruto's cerulean blue eyes, forced herself not to faint, then nodded. Naruto gave her a fox grin and patted her shoulder.

"You'll be a great kunoichi," he said. "I know confidence isn't your strong point, but don't let that drag you down."

Hinata nodded again. "Naruto-kun, you've changed," she said and was surprised that she didn't stutter.

Naruto was surprised as well. "No I haven't," he said, letting his eyes show the sadness that he hid for a brief moment. "I just decided to drop my mask."

Hinata was about to say something until Iruka called out her name. "Hai Iruka-sensei!" she cried, taking a step forward but stopping and turning back to Naruto. "You know, maybe you should take your own advice," she said to the blond before she ran off to continue her exams.

Naruto smiled at himself. "Yeah, maybe I should take my own advice," he said and then turned to watch Hinata throw her kunais at the targets (each were a bullseye, btw).

Those who came from clans passed the accuracy test perfectly while a few others barely missed. The list went down and then came to the U's.

"Uchiha Sasuke," said Iruka and Sasuke went up to the mark with his fangirls cheering his name.

Sasuke casually put his hand in his pouch, then lazily flicked it toward the targets. With several soft thumps, kunais lodged themselves in each bullseye perfectly.

"Excellent Sasuke," said Iruka, making a note on his clipboard and the fangirls cheered and squealed Sasuke's name. "Next, Uzumaki Naruto."

The whole class went quiet as Naruto went up to the mark, fangirls glaring at his back. Naruto held up an empty hand above his chest, then brought it down in a sweeping motion. For a moment, everyone wondered what he was doing, until Naruto sighed and pointed at the targets. Lodged in each bullseye was a kunai.

_I didn't even hear them go in!_ thought Iruka in amazement. "Uh, excellent Naruto," he said, shaking his head and making a note on his clipboard.

Naruto walked away with his hands in his pockets and everyone stared after him, even the fangirls who _weren't_ glaring at him anymore. Sasuke gave Naruto a smile and Naruto returned it briefly.

Next was the taijutsu test. Each student was to go up to a sparring pole and spar with it using all the taijutsu they know. All the boys passed easily (with Naruto and Sasuke being on top because they obliterated their sparring pole in a blink of an eye), but almost all the girls barely scraped a pass save for Hinata who used her **Jyuken** and got a perfect score (her courage going up because of her little talk with Naruto). After the physical test, the class went back inside the academy for the final part of the exams.

Back in the classroom, the students waited for Iruka to call out their names before they entered the other classroom to perform the jutsus given to them. Everyone was noisy in the classroom and Naruto sighed, his ears hurting from the noise.

"Oi! Naruto!" cried Kiba, slapping Naruto on the back and making the blond jump and scowl. "You've really gotten stronger huh? What's your secret? Have you gotten yourself a sensei?"

"Eh, you can say that," said Naruto with shrug. "I'm smarter then you think Kiba." he added with smirk.

"Oh really?" said Kiba with his dog grin. "I'd like to fight you someday Naruto."

"Same here Kiba," replied Naruto and Kiba walked off with a smirk.

"Naruto-kun," said a timid voice and Naruto knew who it was.

"Hinata-chan!" said Naruto, looking around to see Hinata. "You did great on the accuracy test."

"A-Arigato," said Hinata with a blush. "Ano, may I sit next to you?" she asked.

"Sure," said Naruto and Hinata sat down. "See, you're gettiing less shy now."

Hinata twiddled her fingers. "I guess," he said with a shy smile.

"And you're not stuttering too."

"It's only when I'm around you though."

"Oh really? Then maybe I should be with you all the time."

Nruto chuckled at his little joke and Hinata blushed a deeper shade of red. Surprisingly, Naruto wasn't as dense as he let off. He knew hinata had a crush on him (who doesn't?) but he would like to be friends with her first and help her overcome her shyness. Besides, he was too young for love and had plenty of time for it in the future. . . assuming he doesn't die first.

"Uchiha Sasuke," said Iruka's voice and Naruto twisted his head around just in time to see Sasuke walked across the room. He gave his friend a thumbs up, got a smile in return, and then smiled back. Sasuke left the room and Naruto looked back at Hinata.

"Ano, are you and Uchiha-san friends?" she asked, twiddling her fingers shyly.

"Uh, you could say that," said Naruto, looking around and making sure no one was listening in on their conversation. "We've actually been friends for a long time now."

"Really? Then why is it that you always looked like you hated each other?"

"That's because we didn't want anyone to know that we're friends. It'll spell trouble for the both of us, especially me."

"Why is that?"

"It's . . . complicated."

"Oh, I see."

They fell silent, Hinata twiddling her fingers. Naruto sighed and put his hands to his face.

"I'm sleepy," he mumbled. "I wanna sleep."

Hinata was about to say something when Iruka called out Naruto's name. **(a/n: That always seems to happen when Hinata has something important to say. Poor Hinata)**

"But it looks like sleep will have to wait," said Naruto and he gave Hinata a smile before going into the next room.

Naruto entered the next room where Iruka and Mizuki, another chuunin, were sitting behind a desk that was laden with hita-ates. Iruka waited for Naruto to stand in front of them before speaking.

"Okay Naruto," he said, readying his clipboard. "You've done excellent so far. Now all you have to do to get your hita-ate is a bunshin jutsu."

_Tch, a bunshin? That jutsu's the most useless one in the history of jutsus._

But even so, Naruto did the hand signs for the jutsu and the whole room was filled with Naruto clones, all having a bored expression on their faces.

"Impressive," said Mizuki. "I've never seen anyone make so many bunshins at once, except for the Uchiha. He did the same thing."

Naruto's bunshins flickered out of existence and he mentally smirked. _Of course Sasuke passed. He's an Uchiha and happens to be the best friend of a certain jinchuuriki._

"Naruto, you have passed the genin exams," said Iruka with a smile. "I'm very proud of your progress. You may take a hitai-ate."

"Arigato Iruka-sensei, Mizuki-sensei," said Naruto, taking a hitai-ate and bowing to them before leaving.

_Maybe I should've gone to some other village. It's so boring here in Konoha._

Sasuke was waiting outside for Naruto, tapping his foot just to have something to do. Those who have already recieved their hitai-ate were outside also, chatting with their friends and family. Sasuke envied them. They had a family, they had friends, they had a life, unlike him and Naruto. The two were marked and they can never have a life like the other children. Who knew that such a simple thing like not having a family can make someone so miserable? Naruto did, and so did Sasuke.

"Sasuke," said a voice and Sasuke turned to see Naruto, wearing his brand new hitai-ate.

"I knew you were goiing to get that," said Sasuke with a smile.

"Of course," said Naruto, smiling also. "You didn't think I'll put that idiot mask on again did you?"

Sasuke chuckled, but he stopped when he heard whispering.

"Look, it's _him_," said one female villager.

"He has a hitai-ate!" exclaimed another.

"What are those teachers thinking? Making him graduate will only get his hopes up!"

"And he's with the Uchiha boy. He'll only taint the Uchiha name even more."

"I say we do something about this. . ."

Sasuke glared at the whispering villagers who weren't even trying to keep their conversation private. How dare they whisper as if Naruto wasn't even here! If it was up to him, Sasuke would have those villagers locked up real good. Heck, if it wasn't for Naruto, those villagers would be rotting in the ground while the Kyuubi goes on a rampage. Naruto was, and still is, a hero!

Sasuke's hand curled into a fist as he glared at the villagers. Naruto saw this and he put a hand on Sasuke's shoulder.

"Don't worry about it Sasuke," he said, giving Sasuke's shoulder a squeeze.

"But Naruto," started Sasuke but he was surprised when Naruto gave him a smirk.

"Don't worry about it," the blond repeated. "The truth will get out soon. I promise, they'll find out soon."

Sasuke stared at his friend, then nodded. Naruto gave him a fox grin.

"Now, let's go to Ichiraku's! " he said. "I haven't been there in weeks and the old man and Ayame-nechan might be worried about me."

"Are you going to treat me?"

"Sure, but they'll probably give it to us on the house because we graduated anyway."

Sasuke smiled. If Naruto said not to worry, then Sasuke won't worry because he trusts his friend. His best friend.

Sarutobi Hiruzen, Sandaime Hokage of Ho no Kuni, was busy today as he was any other day. He was filing papers, reading reports, giving out missions and all that jazz. He felt that he really needs to retire for he was too old for this now, but as long as there is no Fifth Hokage to take his, and Yondaime's, place, he has to endure and do his duty.

Sarutobi's thoughts were interrupted by a knock on his office door.

"Enter," he said and he looked up to see Umino Iruka enter his office.

"Konnichiwa Hokage-sama," he said with a bow. "I've brought the list of the new genins that graduated."

"Ah, thank you Iruka," said the aged Hokage, reaching out and taking the folder that Iruka held out to him. "Is there anything else you would like to tell me?"

"Actually, there is Hokage-sama," said Iruka.

"Oh? Then tell me."

"It's about two of my students, Uzumaki Naruto and Uchiha Sasuke."

Sarutobi stopped flipping through the pages of the list and peered at Iruka. "What about them?" he asked.

"It's nothing serious Hokage-sama," said Iruka but he still looked a little nervous. "But I think there's something up with them."

"Would you care to explain it to me?"

"Hai Hokage-sama. It started about two weeks ago. I was giving a lecture on the clans of Konoha and I asked Naruto to name these clans."

"Was his answer wrong?"

"On the contrary, his answer was right."

Sarutobi raised an eyebrow. To him, the day Naruto answers a question right is the day when the world stops turning.

"He got it right?" he asked, not believing his ears.

"Yes, he did," said Iruka, understanding that Sarutobi was having a hard time believing it. "I thought it was a one time deal, but then Naruto just kept answering question after question, even more then Haruno Sakura, and when I gave out a pop quiz, he got a perfect score."

"Are you sure this wasn't an imposter?" asked Sarutobi, still having a hard time believing this.

"I'm sure he wasn't an imposter," said Iruka seriously. "I know Naruto as much as you do Hokage-sama. . . or at least, I know the mask he wore."

"Mask? I see." said Sarutobi, stroking his chin thoughtfully. _Naruto must've hidden his true skills to protect himself from the villagers. He was holding back all these years, so my suspicsions were correct._

"Sasuke on the other hand," continued Iruka. "He's changed also. He actually helped a few of his classmates with a jutsu and he's also being nice to Naruto."

Sarutobi's eyes went wide. What has the world become?! A smart Naruto and a nice Sasuke?

"And you're sure they're not imposters?" Sarutobi asked again.

"I'm sure," pressed Iruka. "Please take my word for it."

"Okay," said Sarutobi with a nod. "Who graduated the top in your class?"

"Sasuke and Naruto. They tied."

Sarutobi nodded again. "Thank you for telling me this Iruka. I'll give you the list of the teams tomorrow."

"Hai Hokage-sama," said Iruka, bowing to him before leaving.

_What are they hiding?_ thought Sarutobi, stroking his chin. _Something _is_ up. Well, I trust that when they're ready, they will tell me._

Sarutobi returned to his work, putting aside the list for now. He had to evaluate a plan and he was sure that the person he had in mind would be glad to help him. . . he hoped. . .

It was late at night, nearing midnight probably, but Naruto still hasn't slept. He doesn't feel like sleeping at all and he felt restless. Even that sleeping technique Kyuubi taught him wasn't working.

"I'm bored," said Naruto into the darkness of his room.

**Then go out and do something.**

"But it's boring out there too."

**Did I say go out and party or something? Just go out, be one with nature, go run through the trees until you're exhausted. Let the adrenaline pump through your veins. . .**

"Okay okay, I get what you mean. No need to evaluate any more."

Naruto got up from his bed and open his window. A breeze let itself in and the coldness wrapped itself around Naruto, making his skin tingle. Naruto smirked as he jumped out of his window, his heart already pumping.

_Yeah, this feels better._

Naruto jumped across the roofs and towards the forest where it was more fun because of the intwining branches that makes a perfect obstacle course. Naruto sped up and tested his reflexes, dodging the branches and landing on them with soft thumps. The rush of cold air piercing his skin like daggers and the adrenaline pumping through his body made him feel much better and the restlessness he had felt earlier disappeared. He now knew why he was restless all of a sudden; he wanted to rip off his mask and just bury it so he could be himself now, but he still had to wait for the right moment.

_Maybe at orientation. I'll surprise everyone, but not too much to give them a heart attack. Dropping my henge might make them _die_ of a heart attack, so I'll just use the name I was born with and maybe change my clothes. Kill me orange is not the ideal color for a ninja_.

Naruto grinned, feeling even more better now, but that was short lived when he felt a presense head his way. He stopped in his tracks and immediately hid himself in the leaves and waited as the presense came closer. A moment later, a figure rushed by where Naruto was hiding and Naruto recognized him as Mizuki, the chuunin who was there along with Iruka at the genin exams.

_What's that on his back,_ thought Naruto. _A scroll and two giant shurikens?_

Naruto nearly jumped as another figure rushed by him, yelling for Mizuki to stop. Naruto gasped when he saw that it was Iruka and he quickly and quietly got out of his hiding place.

_What's going on? Did Mizuki do something wrong? Why is Iruka chasing him?_

All these questions flew through Naruto's mind as he followed Iruka to know what was going on. He jumped through the trees for a few minutes until he came upon a clearing where Mizuki and Iruka were standing a few feet from each other. Naruto hid in the trees and watched them. He was too far to know what they were saying (he momentarily forgot about his enhightened sense of hearing), but judging by the expressions on their faces, Mizuki has done something and Iruka was angry at his friend. Mizuki didn't even look guilty for whatever he did. In fact, he looked like he was mocking Iruka. Naruto didn't understand, wasn't he Iruka's friend? Why was he acting that way?

Iruka's face contorted into an expression of rage and he reached into his pouch and threw some kunais at Mizuki. Mizuki easily dodged the the kunais with a smirk and he rushed up to Iruka and punched him hard in the stomach. Iruka dropped to his knees, his face now showing pain, but he had enough strength to swipe at Mizuki with a kunai, though Mizuki jumped away and landed on a tree branch. This time, Naruto was able to hear what the silver-haired chuunin was about to say.

"I'll finish you off once and for all Iruka," he said, unstrapping the giant shuriken on his back. "You were a such a nuisance to me and nuisances should be eliminated."

Mizuki held the shuriken behind him, then threw it with skill towards Iruka, who couldn't move because of the pain in his stomach.

"Iruka-sensei!" cried Naruto and he jumped out of his hiding place and appeared just in time to push Iruka out of the way. Both Iruka and Mizuki's eye went wide with surprise.

"Na-Naruto?" said Iruka, looking up at his student who he has never seen clad black.

"Iruka-sensei," said Naruto, standing up and not looking at his soon-to-be former teacher. ". . . Mizuki will pay for hurting you."

"N-No, Naruto!" cried Iruka. "You're no match for him! Run now!"

Mizuki, who got over his shock, started to laugh. "So, the used-to-be dobe is here huh? You want to save your precious teacher from getting hurt huh?" he said, sneering.

". . . You will pay for hurting Iruka-sensei. . ." said Naruto menacingly, hiding his eyes in his hair. Iruka could feel the killing intent radiating from Naruto, but Mizuki didn't notice it.

"Do you even know what you are boy?" he said, his eyes manic. "You're a demon!"

"No!" cried Iruka, his eyes getting even wider. "Don't tell him Mizuki!"

Mizuki laughed like a madman. "You were responsible for all the deaths that occured here twelve years ago boy! You were responsible for killing hundreds of ninjas! You were responsible for killing Iruka's parents! You wanna know why?"

"NO! DON'T TELL HIM MIZUKI!" yelled Iruka, tears already dripping from his eyes.

"BECAUSE YOU'RE - " started Mizuki but he was cut off when Naruto disappeared from sight then reappeared behind him.

". . . You shouldn't talk so much in a battle Mizuki nor give your opponent an opening," said Naruto before he twisted around and landed a hard kick on the side of Mizuki's head.

Naruto's foot made contact with sickening crunch and Mizuki flew through the air and crashed through three trees before slumping onto the ground, blood dripping from his head. Iruka was shocked.

_H-How did Naruto do that?_

Naruto appeared next to Mizuki in the blink of an eye, grabbed him by the collar and dragged him back to Iruka, throwing him onto the ground in a bowing position.

"Apologize to Iruka," said Naruto and Mizuki glared at him.

"D-Demon!" he spat but Naruto just smirked.

"Don't waste your breath bastard," he said, staring down at Mizuki who could now feel the blond's killing intent and was trying not to cower. "I already know what I am, what's inside of me. I knew years before you even became a chuunin. I know more then you think, and even some things you don't want to know. I've seen things that you don't want to see and I've experienced hardships that you don't want to experience. I doubt that a few worthless words like 'You are the Kyuubi's container' can deter me."

Naruto then grabbed a fistful of Mizuki's hair and forced him to bow his head towards Iruka, who was looking at Naruto with both awe and slight fear.

"Apologize to Iruka!" hissed Naruto and those words seemed to ring in the air.

"G-Gomen Iruka!" said Mizuki, his face showing pain because of Naruto's grip on his hair.

"Good boy Mizuki," said Naruto, letting go of the chuunin. Mizuki twisted his head around to glare at Naruto, but Naruto struck the chuunin on the back of the neck with the side of his hand, knocking him unconscious. Iruka still stared at Naruto, shocked, confused, and slightly fearful.

"N-Naruto," he said, not kowing what else to say.

Naruto went over to pick up the giant scroll, that was dropped by Mizuki, and he went back to Iruka and held it out for him.

"This is what you were after, right?" said the blond, looking at Iruka with no hint of emotions in his eyes.

"H-Hai," said Iruka.

Naruto set it down on the ground and turned away. ". . . I'd appreciate it if you don't tell anyone about what happened here Iruka. I'd like to explain to you, but now is not the right time. I will say this though; the Uzumaki Naruto you knew is not the real me."

And at that, Naruto disappeared in a swirl of leaves. Iruka just stared.

He had just had a glimpse of the real Naruto.

**Emolette: Ooh, I made Naru-kun scary!**

**Naruto: Oh Kami! This sadistic girl made me scary!**

**Sasuke: I've seen scarier versions of you Naruto. but why did you make me nice?!**

**Emolette: Ooh, I made Sasu-kun nice!**

**Naruto: I've never seen a nice Sasuke. . . has anyone?**

**Emolette: I haven't seen a nice twelve-year-old Sasuke. That's one of the reasons why I made this fanfic. I thought it'd be fun to make a nice Sasuke.**

**Sasuke: -eye twitch and angry vein- Nice does not look good on me.**

**Emolette: -snuggles Sasuke- But it's so kawaii on you! Besides, you were nice when you were a kid.**

**Sasuke: -glare- Of course I was! I was innocent back then!**

**Naruto: So, what's going to happen in the next chapter?**

**Emolette: Team 7 forms! And Kakashi is introduced! And the bell test takes place!**

**Sasuke: Finally! I've been waiting for this. It was soooooo embarrassing to be buried neck-deep into the ground.**

**Emolette & Naruto: -laughs their asses off-**

**Sasuke: -glare-**

**Emolette: -wipes tears from eyes- Don't worry Sasu-kun, you're stronger, so that won't happen to you.**

**Naruto: -also wipes tears from eyes- I have a feeling there's going to be some Sakura bashing in the next chapter.**

**Emolette: Oh, you can count on it -sadistic grin-**

**Sasuke: Let's just finish this already and you get writing on the next chapter!**

**Emolette: Hai tachou! -turns on laptop and starts typing- Thank you for reading and review if you want!**


	6. A New Team, A New Beginning

**Emolette: My three-day weekend was fun. . .**

**Naruto: Why? What did you do?**

**Emolette: Virtually nothing except type my story^^**

**Sasuke: So, you spent your three-day weekend typing this story?**

**Emolette: Well, I sleep until ten o'clock in the morning, so after I eat breakfast I type, then I eat lunch and for the rest of the afternoon I type and then I eat a snack, then I type until dinner time, then after dinner I type again and then I go watch some late night tv until like, midnight or one, then I go to sleep.**

**Naruto: -sweatdrop- So, all you do is eat, sleep, and type?**

**Emolette: No. I go to the bathroom too and when I get bored or when I get writers block I go out of my sanctuary that is my room and play with my cousins.**

**Sasuke: You live with your cousins?**

**Emolette: No, they just visit alot 'cuz they're just little kids and we have to watch them sometimes. The oldest is only six.**

**Naruto: Wow. It's like you have a clan of your own.**

**Emolette: I guess you can say that. Anyway, let's get started with the chapter shall we?**

**Chapter Six**

**" A New Team, A New Beginning "**

Sarutobi sat on his desk, getting some rest after a long morning of doing paperwork. His eyes were hurting, but it's nothing that a good nap won't cure. Sarutobi closed his eyes with a sigh and sat back in hs chair, giving his neck a rest also from bending over his desk. It was a peaceful Saturday morning, though that couldn't be said for last night. Mizuki, an academy instructor, had just tried to steal a forbidden scroll, but Iruka had managed to knock him out. Yet Sarutobi had a feeling that Iruka wasn't telling the truth. There was just something in his eyes that just pushed on the Hokage's suspiscious button.

Sarutobi open his eyes. He had felt a presense, no two, standing outside his office window. It was strange because he could sense their chakra, but couldn't measure it. Sarutobi looked at his windows and took a deep breath

"I know you're out there," he said. "If you need anything from me, just step inside the room."

There was a moment of silence that made Sarutobi think that he had just imagined those presenses, but he then sensed the presenses _inside_ of his office. He swiveled his chair around and saw two figures, one wearing a red coat and a red fox mask and the other wearing a black coat and a black raven mask, standing just a few feet away from his desk.

"Hokage-sama," they said and they bowed simultaneously. Their voices were rather metallic, suggesting that they had a voice changer in their masks.

"May I ask for your names?" asked the aged Hokage.

"Fox," said the red one.

"Raven," said the black one.

"Okay," said Sarutobi, looking warily at them. "How may I help you. . . gentleman?"

"We are here to discuss to you about a certain boy that goes by the name of Uzumaki Naruto," said Fox and Sarutobi narrowed his eyes.

"And why must I discuss him with you?" he asked and Fox's head twitched towards Raven. Raven saw this and he looked at his companion.

"Maybe we should tell him," said Raven, his voice changer crackling a little but showing concern. "That _is_ why we're here right? He'll keep the secret until we're fully ready to tell it to everyone."

Moment of silence, then Fox sighed and nodded.

"Fox and Raven are aliases, as you might've guessed," said Fox to Sarutobi, reaching up to take off his mask and Raven mimicked him. "Our real names are actually - " They had a second mask under their animal masks, one that covered half of their face, but they pulled this down and Sarutobi stared at them in shock when he saw their faces. " - Uzumaki Naruto and Uchiha Sasuke."

Sarutobi stared at the two, his mouth agape and not sure if his eyes were decieving him. Was he dreaming? Was he still asleep in his chair? Was he hallucinating because he was tired? He was an old man after all and can only handle so much. But it seemed real enough to him. These two who looked like older versions of Naruto and Sasuke really _were_ Naruto and Sasuke. He just didn't know what to say.

"I hope he didn't have a heart attack," said Naruto with a little worry on his face.

"He didn't," said Sasuke. "He's just shocked, that's all."

Sarutobi gave himself a little shake, pinched himself and lightly slapped himself on the face before accepting that this wasn't a dream.

"This isn't a dream is it?" he asked the two, still having a hard time believing despite himself.

"Will you believe us if we said no?" asked Naruto and Sarutobi sighed.

"I'm getting too old for this," he mumered to himself before regaining his composure. "So, uh, Naruto. What is it that you wanted to discuss with me?"

"Glad you accepted this so quickly," said Naruto with a small smile.

"Like I've got a choice," mumbled Sarutobi to himself. Though both Naruto and Sasuke heard that, they let it go.

"Anyway, I'm here to ask you for a favor Hokage-sama," said Naruto, getting to the point.

"And what may that be?" asked Sarutobi. _When did he start calling me Hokage-sama?_

"I want to change my last name," said Naruto and Sarutobi raised an eyebrow at him.

"To what?"

"Namikaze."

Sarutobi gaped at Naruto again. "How do you know that name?" he asked.

Naruto smirked. "Yondaime Hokage's alias was Kazama Arashi, but his real name was Namikaze Minato. I know he is my father, so I think I have the right to inherit the Namikaze name, right?"

Sarutobi stared, shook his head, then held up his hands in defeat. "Okay, this is too much for me. Please explain to me how you knew who your father is before my head explodes."

"It's simple," said Naruto, smirking despite of himself. "Kyuubi told me."

"You know about Kyuubi?!" cried Sarutobi, his eyes nearly popping out of his head.

"I knew about him ever since I was five," explained Naruto. "He told me everything Hokage-sama and he taught me, and Sasuke, many things, things we could never learn at the academy. But I couldn't let anyone know about that because they'll either beat me or use me as a weapon, so you must understand why I kept this a secret."

"Yes, I understand," said Sarutobi with nod, calming down a bit.

"Hokage-sama, I'm just here to change my name from Uzumaki to Namikaze. It's a small step for me to show who I truly am because I'm sick of hiding behind my mask."

Sarutobi looked into Naruto's brilliant blue eyes that he inherited from his father. They were unlike the eyes from the Naruto he knew that just radiated happiness and innocence. These eyes, though still somewhat innocent and sincere, showed years of hardships and sadness, but still had some of the traits that Sarutobi recognized, like courage and determination. They were so much like Minato's, yet completely different. He knew that this _was_ Naruto, just a different side of him that no one has ever seen.

"I see," said Sarutobi, shifting in his chair and coughing a little. "I'll arrange it myself immediately."

Naruto smiled. It wasn't a fox grin, just an ordinary, regular smile that was honest. "Thank you Hokage-sama," he said, pulling on both of his masks and Sasuke did the same.

"Just, one more thing before you leave," said Sarutobi. His eyes flickered onto Sasuke for moment. He wanted to know where he fit in here, but thought better of it. They'll tell him when they're ready. "Someone would've seen you without your masks." he said instead.

Naruto smirked under his masks. "We took care of that already," he said through his voice changer. "We were outside your window so we could put a genjutsu on it. The ANBU who're watching you are affected by the jutsu and anyone outside the door also. The jutsu will be dispelled once we leave."

"You certainly are stronger then you let on Naruto," said Sarutobi with awe.

"Of course," said Naruto as he and Sasuke jumped outside the window. "We all are Hokage-sama. And please, our secret is now yours, and we'd like to keep it that way." Then the two disappeared into thin air.

Sarutobi stared at the spot where the two disappeared, then sat back in his chair with a sigh. _Great. How many more secrets must I keep until I die,_ was his last thought before he closed his eyes and fell asleep.

It was Monday, the day when the new genins would be sorted into teams. Naruto was nervous. He decided that he was going to make an effort to be himself and not wear his horrible orange jumpsuit, so he was having a hard time picking out what to wear for this special day, even with Kyuubi's help. He went through various outfits (he had more clothes then people realized) and it took him most of the morning to finally pick out what to wear.

"What do you think Kyuu?"asked Naruto as he looked himself in his full lengthed mirror.

**Hmmm. . . I suppose this works. Maybe when you get older you'll wear the clothes **_**I **_**want you to wear.**

"Maybe," said Naruto, tying his hitai-ate around his neck, therefore completing his look. _Unless I wanna look like a Drag Queen,_ he added in his thoughts, making sure Kyuubi didn't hear it.

Naruto was wearing a red shirt with visible black stitches on the hem and a black spiral on the back, black shorts with hidden pockets and red pouches on the front of his thighs, bandages around his shins and arms, and black fingerless gloves. He made an effort of _not_ looking like the idiot everyone knew, and the result made him look a bit more mature, but still looking young and cheerful.

**Hm, I wonder what Sasuke's wearing.**

"Don't go comparing his outfit with mine," said Naruto, putting on his shoes as he left his apartment.

**I won't! At least, I won't let you hear me comparing your outfits.**

Naruto rolled his eyes. Who would've known that the mighty and fearsome King of Bijuus was such a vain feminist? Naruto didn't and he was extremely surprised to find that out.

Naruto arrived at the academy in less then five minutes and he quickly made his way to the orientation room. Taking a deep breath, Naruto opened the door stepped into the room. It was noisy as usual and everyone was spread out, chattering with friends and laughing just like they were still in the academy. Naruto rolled his eyes and then scanned the room for Sasuke. He found the Uchiha sitting next to the window as usual, staring out of it, deep in thought. Naruto smiled to himself as he walked up the aisle to his friend.

"Naruto-kun!" said a timid voice and Naruto saw that it was Hinata.

"Ohayo Hinata-chan," said Naruto with a smile.

"Naruto-kun, you look so good in that outfit," said Hinata with a kind smile.

"Thanks," replied Naruto.

"I hope we can be in the same team," said Hinata, twiddling her fingers with a small blush on her cheeks.

"Aa, I hope so too," said Naruto before giving Hinata one last smile and walking away with a wave. Hinata breathed deeply, trying not to faint, then she sat down in the nearest empty seat and daydreamed about Naruto. Who knew she was that kind of girl?

"Hey there Uchiha," said Naruto, sitting down next to Sasuke. Sasuke looked up, eyed Naruto's new clothes with a raised eyebrow, and smiled.

"Hey there Uzumaki," he said. "Or should I say, Namikaze?"

Naruto chuckled. "We'll see if Hokage-sama did what he promised." he said and he eyed Sasuke's clothes.

Sasuke also changed his clothes. He was wearing a black, sleeveless version of the standard Uchiha shirt with the emblem on the back, black pants with a red waistband (and possibly hidden pockets), bandages around his left arm, a single red weight glove that extended to his elbow on his right arm, and his hitai-ate was tied around his head. Naruto also noticed that his hair was longer, so he assumed that Sasuke was also making an effort in showing his true self.

_**Hm, not bad, not bad at all. It really shows off his body while giving room to breath and move about. And the color scheme is good, inconspicuous and mysterious, yet sexy.**_

"So, now that we've graduated, I hope we can start on the potion soon," said Sasuke.

"Aa," said Naruto with a nod of his head.

Then, there was a loud commotion from outside the room and two girls, one with long pink hair and another with long beach blonde hair, charged into the room, completely out of breath.

"I was first Ino," said Sakura inbetween pants.

"Dream on Sakura," said Ino, panting also. "My foot was the first across the threshhold, so I won."

The two glared at each other and Naruto sweatdropped. _No doubt trying to see who's going to sit next to Sasuke._

Sakura went up to the row where Naruto and Sasuke were sitting and she smiled fangirlishly.

"Ohayo Sasuke-kun!" she shrieked with her high-pitched voice and Naruto steeled himself to not cover his ears. "Ah, you look so good in your new clothes!" Naruto again steeled himself not to smirk when Sasuke just rolled his eyes and ignored her.

"Excuse me, may I sit next to Sasuke-kun?" asked Sakura, tapping Naruto on the shoulder. Naruto looked up at her with a glare.

"And what if I don't want to move _Sakura_?" he said and Sakura was taken aback.

"Naruto? Is that you?" she asked, looking shocked, and everyone looked around and stared at Naruto, seeing how much more mature he looked in his new clothes..

"Of course it's me," Naruto snapped. "No other guy in this class has blond hair, blue eyes and marks on his cheeks."

"Uh, I guess you're right," said Sakura, feeling a bit embarrassed. "Ano, Naruto, will you let me sit next to Sasuke-kun?"

"No," said Naruto, putting his chin in his hand and a tick appeared on Sakura's (large) forehead.

"Come on Naruto," she said, faking sweetness. "If you let me sit there, I'll go on a date with you. I know you've always wanted to go on a date with me."

"Tch," said Naruto with annoyance. "As if I'll ever go on a date with a banshee. You're not my type anyway."

Sakura felt like the earth opened up beneath her and swallowed her whole. "What did you say?" she said menacingly. By now, everyone was watching her and Naruto with their little fight. They were all awed that Naruto would come inbetween a fangirl and Sasuke. To the others, that was suicide.

"I said I'll never go on a date with a banshee," repeated Naruto, looking bored.

"But Naruto, I thought you liked Sakura," Ino intervened even though she was enjoying the show. No one but her had insulted Sakura like that.

"News flash, I never liked Sakura," said Naruto. "I just pretended because an assumed dobe like me would never have a chance with an assumed brainiac like her."

Sakura's killing intent went up a level but Naruto barely noticed it. He's been in worse situations before anyway. Fortunately, before Sakura could raise her fist and aim it at Naruto's head, Iruka came in and everyone took their seats. Sakura had no other choice but to sit next to Naruto.

_Inner Sakura: I'M GOING TO KILL THAT DOBE!!! SHANNARO!!!_

Iruka went on a long speech about being genin and going up a level and all that jazz. Naruto barely listened and he impatiently tapped his foot, waiting for Iruka to call out the teams. The list went on, until it got to. . .

". . . Team 7 . . . Haruno Sakura . . . Uchiha Sasuke. . ." Sakura yelled "Yatta!" and all the other fangirls groaned in disappiontment. ". . . and Namikaze Naruto."

Naruto didn't know if he was supposed to be happy or annoyed. He was happy that he was teamed up with his best friend, but he was annoyed to be teamed up with the banshee. He was also happy to find out that Sandaime did what he promised and changed his name into Namikaze.

"Ano, Iruka-sensei," said Sakura, looking confused. "Don't you mean Uzumaki Naruto?'

"No," said Iruka, looking up from his clipboard. "Naruto's last name is now Namikaze. There's no mistake about it."

"But isn't that the Fourth Hokage's last name?" asked another student.

"Yes it is," said Iruka with a nod. "Naruto, why don't you explain?"

Naruto sighed. "Namikaze is my last name because it has been found that my father _is _the Yondaime Hokage," he said, loud enough for everyone to hear. Gasps went everywhere and Naruto mentally smirked.

"Alright, settle down," said Iruka as the students began to chatter. Iruka did his big head jutsu and everyone shut up. "You can ask Naruto questions later. Let's move on with the list."

After Hyuga Hinata, Inuzuka Kiba, and Aburame Shino were put into Team 8 and Nara Shikamaru, Akimichi Chouji, and Yamanaka Ino was put in Team 10, Naruto stopped listening and joined Sasuke in staring out the window.

_What to do now that I inherited my father's last name? I guess I'll just show off my skills to our teacher. I wonder who'll it be? I hope he or she's going to strong because there's no way I wanna show up a jounin._

Naruto slightly smiled to himself at the thought. Maybe showing up a jounin might be good for his new reputation.

After the listing of the new teams, everyone had to wait for their new jounin teacher to show up. But after two hours, all the other teams had already left and Team 7 was still waiting for their jounin sensei. All three were bored out of their skulls and pretty annoyed too. Sakura had tried to strike up a conversation with Sasuke (to no avail) and even Naruto (again, to no avail) and is now pacing the front of the room, glancing at the clock every few seconds. Naruto and Sasuke sat together, silent and deep in their own thoughts, but they both twirled a kunai in their hands adsentmindingly, or at least, that's what it seems.

"When is our sensei going to get here?" whined Sakura, leaning against the teacher's desk.

Nartuo's ears perked up when he heard footsteps coming towards the direction of the room. "In ten seconds," he said and Sakura looked at him skeptically. "Nine. . . eight. . . seven. . . six. . . five. . . four. . . three. . . two . . . one. . ."

At the count of one, the door slid open and the kunais in Naruto and Sasuke's hands flew across the room. The silver-haired person that walked inside ducked his head in time and the kunais flew right by him and lodged themselves in the wall across the hall.

"You're late," said the three genins simultaneously, but Naruto and Sasuke said it calmly with a hint of annoyance while Sakura screeched it being the banshee that she is.

"Hm, someone needs a nap," said the jounin, straightening up. He had a mask covering half of his face and his hitai-ate was lowered to cover his left eye, so all that could be seen is his right eye which was curved in an upside down U, suggesting that he was smiling under the mask. "That was my first impression on you guys. My second impression is that I hate you."

The genins sweatdropped and they had the same thought. _Great. I'm stuck with a loony sensei._

"Anyway," said the jounin with a small cough. " Let's meet at the roof and we can talk there."

The jounin then disappeared in a cloud of smoke with a poof and Naruto and Sasuke glared at the spot where he was previously standing.

"He sure is something," said Sasuke sarcastically and quietly enough for only Naruto to hear.

"Aa," said Naruto, standing up and following a fuming Sakura out of the room with the Uchiha right beind him.

At the rooftop, the three genins sat on the steps while the silver-haired jounin leaned against the railing. Naruto leaned back on the steps, looking bored, Sasuke leaned forward, resting his arms on his thighs and resting his chin in his hands, staring at the jounin and Sakura hugged her knees, glancing at Sasuke every now and again and giggling.

"So," said the jounin, feeling a little awkward. "Why don't we all introduce ourselves first?"

"What should we say sensei?" asked Sakura and the guys rolled their eyes.

_Do I need to tell you every detail,_ thought the jounin. "Your name, likes, dislikes, hobbies, and ambition, basically," he said, looking at his students.

"Shouldn't you go first sensei?" said Sakura and the jounin tried not to roll his eye.

"Fine," he said, staightening up. "My name is Hatake Kakashi. I like the Icha Icha book series. I dislike those who take their teammates for granted and who doesn't know how to work in a team. I have many hobbies and as for my ambitions, I don't have any because I never really thought of it."

The genins sweatdropped. "Well, that was elaborate," said Sakura sarcastically and the two boys couldn't help but agree with the pink-haired banshee.

"Yosh, now it's your turn," said Kakashi enthusiastically, his eye curving upwards. "You go first pinky."

Sakura glared at Kakashi before speaking. "My name is Haruno Sakura.," she said, straightening up. "My likes are - " At this, she glanced at Sasuke and giggled. "My hobbies are - " Again, she glanced at Sasuke and giggled even louder. "My ambition is - " She glanced at Sasuke once more and gave out an earsplitting squeal that made her sound like a pig.

"And your dislikes?" asked Kakashi, trying _real_ hard not to roll his eye. _Girls like her think that love is everything. With that thinking, they'll die once they step onto a battlefield. I'll have to find a way to stomp that fangirlism out of her with any grueling means neccessary. Yeah. . ._

"_Naruto_," said Sakura menacingly and Naruto rolled his eyes.

"Pfft," said the blond. "As if I care fivehead."

"Okay, calm down," said Kakashi as Sasuke stifled a laugh and stopping Sakura before she could murder the blond. "Remember, we're a team, so no killing each other. That means you Sakura."

Sakura "hmph-ed", turning away with her arms crossed and Kakashi sighed.

"You're next emo boy," he said, pointing at Sasuke.

"My name is Uchiha Sasuke," said the brunet calmly and coolly. "I like a few things and dislike alot of things. My hobbies are training and reading. My ambition is to help a certain someone and to reveal a certain truth that has been kept a secret for years. Most people think that I am an avenger, wanting to take revenge for my clan, but to tell the truth, that's just a stupid rumor assumed true by stupid people."

_Sasuke-kun's so cool,_ thought Sakura with a small giggle.

_I knew you were going to say that,_ Naruto thought with a small smirk.

_So, what Hokage-sama told me was true, _thought Kakashi. _He has changed and he doesn't look as angry as before. I'll have to keep an eye on him and see what's up._

"Okay," he said and he casually looked over at Naruto, who was staring of into space, looking bored. They locked eyes for a moment, then Kakashi almost jumped when the cerulean eyes turned crimson, the rounded pupils became slits and an enomous and nauseating wave of killing intent swept over him. Kakashi steeled himself not to move and he blinked his eye, still locked onto Naruto's eyes which turned back to bright blue. Kakashi had a wild notion that he had just imagined what he saw, but he knew it really happened when Naruto's lips curled upward in a knowing smirk.

"You're next blondie," said Kakashi curving his eye upward to mask his surprise.

Naruto slightly narrowed his eyes at the silver-haired jounin before sitting upright. "My name is Namikaze Naruto," he said, staring straight into the jounin's closed eye to watch for any sign of emotion. "My likes are few, and my dislikes are many. My hobbies are to train, read, and hang with my friends. My ambition is to become Hokage and earn the respect of the villagers because if it wasn't for me and my father. . ." he let the sentence hang and he smirked. "Well, I'll assume you know the reason Kakashi-sensei."

Kakashi opened his eye and looked at Naruto. _He lookes just like Minato-sensei,_ he thought. _But he's so different. He grew up without parents and was taught by a demon. He's not the cheerful boy everyone thought he was. He's sad, he's angry, he's lonely. . . and he's out for revenge, just not in the way that we all think. But still, under that mask is a veil. Someone might've seen what was under that mask, but have they looked behind the veil?_

"Aa, Naruto," said Kakashi back in the real world and Naruto smirked.

"Ne, what're you guys talking about?" asked Sakura, looking confused. What a pink-haired, fiveheaded, flat-chested, banshee **(a/n: BASHING!!! SAKURA BASHING!!!)**

"Maybe you'll know in time," said Sasuke and Sakura looked up at him with stars as eyes.

"You talked to me Sasuke-kun!" she squealed and the guys sweatdropped.

_Way to ruin the moment you pink-haired bitch,_ they thought **(a/n: more bashing!!!)**.

"Yosh!" said Kakashi, standing up and clapping his hands together. "Now that we know each other a little bit more, we'll all meet at the third training ground at six am tomorrow. We'll be having a little drill."

"Why is that Kakashi-sensei?" asked Sakura.

"This will be your _real_ test to see if you're worthy of becoming a ninja," said Kakashi. "If you fail this test, you will return to the academy for more studying."

"NANI?!" cried Sakura but Naruto and Sasuke were barely fazed by the news.

"Anyway, I'll see you three tomorrow," said Kakashi, with a wave of his hand. "Oh, and don't eat breakfast or you'll puke."

Then Kakashi disappeared in a puff of smoke. The three genins stared at the spot where he previously stood, then Naruto sighed and sat back again.

"I feel like doing something nice," he said with a smile. "You guys wanna go get some lunch? I'm buyin'."

**Emolette: In that last part, I made Naru-kun be nice to Sakura since he was in the mood.**

**Naruto: Why'd you do that? I liked the Sakura bashing!**

**Emolette: The chapter isn't supposed to be about bashing. The title is "A New Team, A New Beginning", so that new beginning was for me to be nice to Sakura.**

**Sasuke: Your logic doesn't make any sense.**

**Emolette: To you! Anyway, the bell test is next and Sakura will barely be there because she's weak. I'll try my best in the fight scene, since I'm so nice, but I can't promise it'll be long 'cuz I suck at this. I'm just a beginner after all.**

**Naruto: When have you ever been nice?**

**Emolette: I was nice enough to let you comment here.**

**Sasuke: That's because you love us.**

**Emolette: Noooooo, it's because I wanted the readers to laugh at the funny conversations I have with you imaginary people. I was thinking of the readers, not myself.**

**Naruto & Sasuke: -rolls eyes- Chyah right!**

**Emolette: -eye twitch and angry vein- I now have the burning desire to wring your throats and squeeze your heads until it bursts and your brains smother my hands, but I will refrain from doing that because I love you guys no matter how much I hate you and Kami do I hate you!**

**Naruto & Sasuke: O.O**

**Emolette: ^^ See 'yah!**


	7. The Bell Test

**Emolette: Yay! Let's celebrate!**

**Naruto: Why?**

**Emolette: Because I made it to chapter seven!**

**Sasuke: Congratulations, but why do we have to celebrate?**

**Emolette: Because I've never made it to chapter seven before! Yay me!**

**Naruto: How come you've never made it to chapter seven before?**

**Emolette: Well, I've been writing stories for years and I've been wanting to post them on this particular sight that also posts fanfictions but alas, I couldn't. So, my stories were forgotten after a chapter or two because I didn't have any motivation. But now that I'm posting my story here, I get motivated by my readers to keep on truckin'! It doesn't hurt that after years of waiting, I finally got my laptop!**

**Sasuke: Good for you.**

**Naruto: Yeah! Emo-chan made it to seven!**

**Emolette: And I'll keep on going until I think up of a ending, but there's still a long way. . .**

**Sasuke: Good luck with that.**

**Naruto: Yeah! Lots and lots of it!**

**Emolette: ^^ Arigato gozaimasu! Now, on to chapter seven!**

**Chapter Seven**

**" The Bell Test "**

Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura arrived at the third training ground at the crack of dawn, just like Kakashi said, but the silver-haired jounin wasn't there yet. Sakura was dead on her feet, muttering to herself about needing her beauty sleep as she sat down on the base of a tree and tried to catch some shut eye before Kakashi gets there. Naruto and Sasuke on the other hand weren't really that tired because they slept early the previous night (in the treehouse to be exact because they trained to get ready for the drill) but they were also annoyed that Kakashi was going to be late. They sat down, back-to-back, under a tree and closed their eyes to meditate (though they looked like they were sleeping also).

The hours passed and the sun was high in the sky before Kakashi appeared in a cloud of smoke with a small poof.

"Ohayo," he said but he then saw his sleeping students under the shade of the tree. He sighed and shook Sakura awake first.

"Huh? Wha - ?" she said, rubbing her eyes. She then saw Kakashi and her expression turned from tired to angry. "YOU'RE LATE!!!" she yelled.

"Gomen," said Kakashi, rubbing his ear. "I got lost thinking about the meaning of life."

Sakura sweatdropped. _That was a lame excuse.._

Kakashi went over to the two supposedly sleeping boys and he laid a hand on their heads, intending to bonk them together, but in a flash, the boy's hands reached up and grabbed each of Kakashi's hands and squeezed it hard enough to break it. Naruto and Sasuke opened their eyes and glared at Kakashi as the jounin winced in pain.

"Ow ow ow ow ow!" cried Kakashi and the preteens let go of his hands.

"You're late," they said simultaneously as they stood up.

"You didn't need to squeeze so hard," whined Kakashi, massaging hands.

"Then you shouldn't have come late," said Naruto with a glare.

"Okay, I learned my lesson," said Kakashi, but he crossed his fingers behind him. "Anyway, let's start with our drill shall we?"

Kakashi went over to one of the three wooden posts that sat in the middle of the field and placed an alarm clock on top of it. He then help up two bells that jingled as he swung them.

"The obective," he said, jingling the bells. "Is to take these two bells from before the alarm rings. You may use any means neccessary, but I warn you, if you don't come at me with the intent of killing me, then you will never get the bells."

Both Naruto and Sasuke smirked. _Not going to be a problem,_ they thought.

"But sensei," said Sakura, pointing at the bells in Kakashi's hand. "Why're there only two bells?"

"Good question," said Kakashi, his eye curving upward and tossing the bells in the air. "I'll tell you the answer if you manage to get them from me." He caught the bells and tied them around his waistband. "You have until noon to get the bells from me, so that gives you a good forty-five minutes. So, on my signal." The three genins stood in a ready stance, their eyes on their sensei." Ready. . . Set. . . Start!"

The genins jumped and disappeared. Kakashi's eye curved upward.

"The basics for a shinobi are to conceal yourself and remain hidden," he said to himself. "They did well in concealing themselves, but lets see how well they survive."

Kakashi walked towards the middle of the field and took out his orange Icha Icha Paradise book, a grin forming under his mask. _Let the games begin._

_Sasuke-kun, where are you?_

Sakura jumped through the trees, frantically searching for her true love as if she'll find him. Sasuke was always on her mind, the _only_ thing on her mind. She didn't really care about anything else, only Sasuke. Man, this girl needs to get her priorities straight.

Sakura gasped and stopped in her tracks when she saw Kakashi standing in a clearing just below her.

"Phew, that was close," she said to herself.

"Sakura," said a voice behind her and Sakura spun around to see Kakashi crouching behind her, his hand forming a sign.

Sakura was then engulfed in a swirl of leaves and her eyes glazed for a moment before refocusing again. The pinkette blinked and looked around, finding herself on the ground.

"Eh?" she said, looking confused. "Why am I here? Where's sensei? What happened? What's what?!"

Sakura was confused. Go figure.

"S-Sakura. . ." said a voice that the flat-chested pinkette knew very well.

"Sasuke-kun!" she said, turning around with glee but that was short-lived.

Sasuke was crounched near the base of a tree, completely covered in his own blood and pierced with kunais like a target dummy.

"Sa-Sakura," said Sasuke, coughing up blood. "He-Help me. . ."

Sakura just stared, her eyes wide with horror, then she shrieked. Not screamed, shrieked (since she is a banshee) and she fell backwards, her world turning black. The bloody Sasuke she saw flickered and disappeared from existence, being just a simple genjutsu.

In the tree just above where the illusion appeared and disappeared, Kakashi idily turned a page in his book.

"Hm. . . maybe that was too much," he mumbled to himself.

A shrieked pierced the air, making birds fly off from the treetops. Naruto and Sasuke stopped their jumping and looked around, wary of their surroundings.

"Looks like that scarecrow got the banshee," said Naruto with a smirk.

"Looks like it," said Sasuke, unsmiling. "But I think we have to go get her. This _is_ a test of teamwork."

"Aa," said Naruto although relunctantly and the two friends turned around and leaped away towards the source of the scream.

It didn't take long for them to find Sakura lying on the ground with a shocked expression on her face. Both Naruto and Sasuke sighed.

"Fooled by a simple genjutsu," said Naruto, shaking his head. "And she's the genjutsu type. How much more weak can she get?"

"I hope not any weaker or that'll be trouble," said Sasuke, bending down and shaking Sakura.

"Hu-huh?" said Sakura, opening her eyes. When she saw Sasuke bending over her she suddenly sat up and wrapped her arms around the Uchiha's neck. "Sasuke-kun! You're alive!" she cried.

"Hey! Get off me!" cried Sasuke, prying Sakura's strong hands off him.

"Would you stop it!" hissed Naruto with malice and Sakura let go of Sasuke only to glare at him.

"Don't tell me what to do dobe!" she said and Naruto couldn't take it. He went up to the pinkette, grabbed her by the collar and lifted her up effortlessly, letting his killing intent radiate from his body.

"Do you think ths is a game?!" he said, slightly shaking Sakura and Sakura's eyes became fearful. "You think that just because Sasuke's with you, you'll be alright? News flash pinky! He's not the one going to save you all the time. _You_ have to save _yourself_! Just think about it for a moment with that large forehead of yours!" Sakura was shaking in Naruto's grip, but she didn't struggle as she looked into those cerulean eyes and saw the realness of the anger in those eyes. Naruto tightened his grip and let out all the anger he had against Sakura. "In a battle, one wrong decision will lead to your death! In a battle, there is _always_ a death! Sasuke won't be helping you all the time just because you say so! There are people out there stronger then Sasuke, stronger then me, and stronger then our sensei and those people just might kill us all if we had the misfortune of meeting them! So you better suck it up, _stop_ thinking about Sasuke, _start_ thinking about yourself, and become stronger, _not_ to impress him, but to _survive_ because in the state you're in now, your head would fly off your shoulders before you even enter a battlefield. Look at you, losing to such a simple genjutsu just because it looked like Sasuke. You don't deserve to be a kuniochi."

Sasuke watched Naruto knock some sense ito the pinkette, agreeing with every word his blond friend said. _If she just stopped being so fangirlish. _Naruto let go of Sakura and she fell to her knees, shaking with fear.

_Wha-What was that? Was that really Naruto, the dobe in our class? H-How come he acted that way? There was so much. . . anger in his eyes. And it was towards me. Is that the true Naruto?_

Sakura shakily looked up at Naruto, who was looking down at her with no hint of emotion in his eyes.

"Pull yourself together," he said, his voice monotone. "To pass this test, we have to work as a team. So we'll have to formulate a plan to beat Kakashi and take those bells."

Sakura gulped, then nodded. Naruto smirked, but it was the thirsty kind of smirk. . . thirsty for a battle.

"We'll get that one-eyed scarecrow," he said, turning away. "I've got a plan."

Sakura stood up and nodded enthusiatically, finally getting serious. She didn't want to go back to the academy after all. Sasuke slightly smirked to himself and gave kudos to Naruto.

_He always knows just what to say._

"Hm. . . is it me, or has it gone quiet?" asked to Kakashi to himself, leaning against a tree with his book open in his hand.

The forest certainly had gone quiet. No birds chirped, no forest creatures scampered, there wasn't even a gust of wind. Kakashi narrowed his eyes and knew it was a sign that something was up.

A leaf from the branches above him floated down and set itself on the pages of Kakashi's book. Kakashi stared at it, then closed his book without taking the leaf out. Suddenly, a dark blur appeared at Kakashi's right and rushed up to Kakashi with such speed, that he barely even had time to think before he was knocked backward by a hard kick to the jaw. Kakashi flew for a moment, his brain processing what just happened, then gave himself a mental shake before backflipping and sliding along the ground for a moment before coming to a stop.

"Very good Naruto," said Kakashi, massaging his chin and looking at his student with sun-kissed hair who stood, smirking at him, a few feet away. "I never would've thought that a genin would hit me so hard."

Naruto just smirked. Kakashi narrowed his eye, then it traveled to what Naruto was holding in his hand. It was an orange book, the one that Kakashi was previously reading.

"What?!" he cried and he checked his pouch, hoping that it was just an illusion. It wasn't and he glared at the blond jinchuuriki.

"You want it back?" asked the blond with a smirk as he waved the book around. "I'm sorry, but I can not give it back to you. You're underestimating us and I don't like it. So, knowing how much you love it, I'm going to burn this book as your punishment."

The orange book in Naruto's hand became black and charred as it burst into flames. Kakashi didn't even ponder on how Naruto did that for his eyes went wide with horror, then narrowed in a fierce death glare.

"You're going to pay for that," he said menacingly, his killing intent leaking from his body, and Naruto smirked.

_That's it. Give me all you got,_ he thought.

Kakashi reached up to his hita-ate and lifted it up. His left eye had a scar on it, but what was even more surprising was that the iris was red and had three tomoes in them.

"You have a sharingan?" said Naruto, raising an eyebrow in surprise. "Wow, didn't see that coming."

"You won't see this coming either," said Kakashi as his hands formed hand seals to swift for the eye to see. "**Suiton: Suiryuudan no Jutsu**!"

The river that was lazily flowing at the far end of the field started churning and rising up, forming a dragon, and it rushed towards Naruto, who just stood still with that smirk glued onto his face.

"You're as strong as I thought Kakashi-sensei," he said before forming hand seals as swiftly as Kakashi did and Kakashi's eyes went wide in surprise. "**Doton: Doryuuheki no Jutsu**!"

Naruto opened his mouth and a mudlike substance spewed out of it, surrounding the blond and hardening as the water dragon Kakashi created crashed down onto it.

_How does he know that justu?_ thought the silver-haired jounin as the water jutsu dispelled. The earth wall still stood, but Kakashi couldn't sense Naruto's presense inside of it. . . until Naruto appeared behind him.

"Gotcha," said the blond and he threw a flurry of kicks and punches at Kakashi. Kakashi was knocked off guard and he barely had time to block all the attacks.

_He's strong, _thought Kakashi. _He should be physically weaker then me, but his attacks are as strong as a jounin's. Just how strong is he though?_

Naruto threw a right kick at Kakashi from the air. Kakashi saw this and caught it with his right hand. Naruto threw a left kick at Kakashi and the jounin caught it with his left hand. Naruto smirked upside down in front of Kakashi and, for a brief moment, the silver-haired shinobi was confused on why he smirked, until he noticed that _both_ his hands were holding Naruto's legs.

_Shit!_ thought Kakashi as Naruto reached for the bells on his waistband. Kakashi moved his body backwards just enough so that Naruto only touched the bells with the tip of his finger.

_Damnit!_ thought Naruto as he pushed himself away from Kakashi and landed a few feet away from him.

"I'll admit you surprised me a few times Naruto," asked the jounin, his sharingan eye flashing. "But is that all you got?"

Naruto just glared. "I told you not to underestimate me!" he cried, his hands blurring as he formed a series of hand seals. He then bent backwards, the two fingers of his right hand forming a hook in front of his mouth.

"**Katon: Ryuuka no Jutsu**!" cried the blond and he bent forward as a stream of fire flew from his mouth, towards Kakashi.

"The hell - !" cried Kakashi before jumping.

"I'm not done yet!" cried Naruto, going through another series of hand seals and repeating his movements. "**Katon: Housenka no Jutsu**!"

Multiple blasts of fire came from Naruto's mouth and flew towards Kakashi who was still in the air. Kakashi's eyes went wide as the fireballs found their target. . . or so Naruto thought for, a moment later, Kakashi became a log that was burnt by the fireballs.

_Crap, kawarimi,_ he thought as he carefully scanned his surroundings, looking for Kakashi's aura. When he found his sensei, he smirked, crounched down, and spread his hands onto the ground.

_This battle's finished Kakashi._

Meanwhile, Kakashi was standing under a tree, panting and clutching the arm that got burned by Naruto's fire jutsu. He was completely surprised at Naruto's level. Though he - Kakashi - didn't fight at his full strength, he had a hard time just thinking as Naruto attacked.

_That kid really knows his stuff,_ thought Kakashi. _Even though he's only twelve, he knows jounin level ninjutsu. Kyuubi must really be working his butt off to make Naruto this strong._

Suddenly, Kakashi felt something grab his ankle. He looked down with wide eyes and saw a gloved hand gripping his ankle in a firm grasp.

"**Doton: Shinjuu Zanshu no Jutsu**," Kakashi heard a voice say, muffled from being below the earth, and he felt himself go down until only his head stuck out of the ground. He struggled, but he couldn't get himself out of the ground.

"That bastard!" cried Kakashi, struggling to get free but the ground was just way too tight.

In front of him, Naruto burst out of the earth and stood in front of his teacher, a smirk on his face. "You shouldn't call a minor like me that name Kakashi-sensei," he said, dusting himself off casually. "That's pretty rude and you could get arrested for verbal abuse."

"Verbal abuse my ass," mumbled Kakashi, glaring at Naruto.

Naruto crouched down in front of Kakashi and covered the jounin's left eye with his hitai-ate again. "You won't be needing this anymore," he said. "And F.Y.I., the fight we just had wasn't even real."

Kakashi looked up at Naruto with a "WTF" expression. "What did you say?" he asked, his eye wide.

"In fact, all of this isn't real," said Naruto, his smirk becoming wider as he lifted a hand and snapped his fingers.

"This is taking a while," said Sakura, looking down at Kakashi and Naruto. Kakashi was slumped against the tree he had been leaning on and Naruto sat cross-legged in front of him, his eyes closed.

"Quiet," said Sasuke, his hand in a seal. "I need to concentrate."

Sakura shut her mouth and waited. _No need to snap Sasuke-kun. . . Wait, was I just annoyed with Sasuke-kun?!_ she thought, her eyes a bit wide.

_Naruto said this would be quick,_ thought Sasuke. _It's been five minutes. I expected him to be here three minutes ago. Well, Kakashi _is_ a jounin and I'm sure he wouldn't be defeated so easily._

Then all of a sudden, Kakashi's eyes flew open and he gasped for air. "Holy crap!" he cried, seeing that he wasn't buried neck-deep into he ground.

Naruto opened his eyes more calmly and he smirked at Kakashi. "Now, wasn't that interesting Kakashi-sensei?" he asked as the jounin sat up.

"Okay," said Kakashi, putting a hand to his face. "Would you please care to explain what happened? When was I put under a genjutsu?"

Sasuke answered this. "When that leaf floated onto your book," he said, letting his hands fall to his side. "You fell for it once you looked at it. It isn't one of my more powerful genjutsus, but it's effective."

"You did the genjutsu?" asked Kakashi, looking up at Sasuke. "Then how come I was fighting Naruto?"

"He wanted to," said Sasuke with a slight pout that made Inner Sakura squeal.

_I can't believe I fell for a genjutsu made by a a twelve-year-old,_ thought Kakashi, mentally kicking his own ass. _Am I getting rusty or is Sasuke more powerful then he lets on, just like Naruto. But what if they're just fooling me into believing that they're strong? Damn, I don't know what's what anymore. They're really playing with my head._

Kakashi sighed, his head aching over such a simple thing. Naruto sensed his confusion and he smirked to himself as he stood up.

"Hey, Kakashi-sensei," he said. "What about the bell test, did we pass?"

Kakashi looked up at him. "Did you get the bells?" he asked.

"Course we did," said Naruto. "Give 'em here Sasuke."

Sasuke reached into his pocket and pulled out the two bells. He tossed them to Naruto and it jingled as the blond caught it with one hand.

"This test was about teamwork right?" asked Naruto, letting the bells hang from his hand.

"Yes," said Kakashi. "But only you and Sasuke worked together to bring me down. Where does Sakura fit into this?"

"Sakura represents the. . . weakest in the group," said Naruto and Sakura glared at him.

"Do you disagree Sakura?" asked Kakashi, seeing the glare.

"No," said Sakura to Kakashi's surprise. "I might not like hearing it, but it's true."

_Who went and knocked some sense into her?_ thought Kakashi.

"Anyway," Naruto pressed. "Sakura represents the weakest in the group, so the stronger ones, representing me and Sasuke, will accomplish the mission and one of us, representing me, will sacrifice himself to save his teammates and still get the mission done." At that, Naruto tossed the two bells to Sasuke and Sakura. "So, I sacrifice myself and will go back to the academy while you have to pass the other two."

Sakura looked a little shocked at this but Kakashi and Sasuke had a feeling Naruto was going to do that.

"Though your method wasn't what I expected," said Kakashi, standing up and dusting his bottom. "Your concept is exactly right.'

"So?" asked Naruto, raising an eyebrow.

"So, you all pass," said Kakashi, his eye curving upwards.

"YATTA!!!" cried Sakura, punching the air. "I'm not going back to the academy!"

Naruto and Sasuke just smirked at each other and Kakashi stood there, grinning under his mask.

_These kids are strange, but there may be hope for them yet._

The three preteen's stomachs were growling up a storm, since they took Kakashi's advice seriously and didn't eat breakfast, but they were relieved when Kakashi brought out bento boxes for them. They sat down under a large tree and ate their lunch while Kakashi was busy reading his book (he was relieved to find out that it _wasn't_ burnt to a crisp). The three genins were quiet while they ate their lunch though and Kakashi found that unnerving and annoying.

"Kids shoudn't be so quiet," said Kakashi, breaking the silence.

"What's it to you if we're quiet every once in a while?" said Naruto, annoyed that the peaceful silence was broken.

Kakashi didn't answer that. There was a moment of silence, until Kakashi was hit by a bolt of lightning (in his own mind).

"Ah, Naruto, I almost forgot," he said, closing his book, and Naruto looked curiously at him.

Kakashi gestured for the blond to follow him and Naruto put aside his half-eaten bento and followed the silver-haired jounin into the forest. When they were a little way away, covered by the shadows of the trees and bushes, Kakashi turned to Naruto, reaching inside his pouch

"Hokage-sama wanted me to give this to you," he said, taking out a scroll anad handing it to Naruto.

Naruto stared at the scroll for a moment before taking it. It was a simple but very thin scroll tied with red string, but there was an emblem on it that looked like a spiral and despite the string, there was a blood seal.

"What's this?" asked the blond.

"You father prepared it the day you were born, which as also the day Kyuubi attacked Konoha," answered Kakashi and Naruto's body tensed at this but didn't show any other sign of surprise.

"How long did Sandaime hide this?" asked Naruto, his voice monotone.

"He was planning to give it to you, _and_ tell you the truth, when you become a chuunin," said Kakashi. "But he told me that you already knew and was being taught by Kyuubi himself, so he thought that he might as well give it to you now that you're ready."

Naruto didn't say anything for a moment. He breathed deeply, not sure if he even wanted to be angry or sad, but after a moment he looked up at Kakashi, his eyes betraying no emotion.

"Why did he tell you?" he asked. Though he kept his face blank, he squeezed the scroll tightly in his hand.

"Because I used to be your father's student," said Kakashi, noticing Naruto's gesture but not mentioning it. "Don't worry, I'll keep it a secret also."

"I trust you on that," said Naruto, closing his eyes. "I also trust you not to question what Kyuubi does to me. He isn't as bad as everyone thinks."

"Though I have a hard time believing that, I'll take your word for it," said Kakashi with a slight chuckle. "Now, let's go back shall we?"

". . . I'm not hungry anymore," said Naruto, turning away and hiding his eyes in his hair.

Kakashi's hand twitched. He wanted to put it on Naruto's shoulder, to show that he understood whatever he was feeling because he too lost his father, but the jounin found it hard to do so. Maybe it's because the two had just met and doesn't really trust each other yet, and Kakashi was still uneasy about what he saw in the blond's eyes the other day, yet he still wanted to _be _there for his teacher's child.

_. . . Maybe. . . when the time comes,_ thought Kakashi.

"Do you want me to tell the others that you went on ahead?" was all Kakashi could say. Damn him for being such an awkward person!

". . . Sure," was what Naruto said before he disappeared. Just disappeared, with nothing but invisible air swirling around him.

Kakashi stared at the spot where Naruto disappeared, sighed to himself, then went back to his two remaining students. He has to learn how to be close to people again. He's getting rusty at that.

**Emolette: Yeah, crappy ending 'cuz I kinda rushed through this. . .**

**Naruto: But it was funny when I buried Kakashi neck-deep into the ground -snickers-**

**Sasuke: At least it wasn't me this time. . .**

**Emolette: I suck at fighting scenes. . . I need some help with it. . . until then, bear with me folks.**

**Sasuke: . . .**

**Naruto: . . .**

**Emolette: . . . So. . . Should I make this short?**

**Sasuke & Naruto: -nods heads-**

**Emolette: Okay. See ya'll in the next chapter. Oh, and thank you Hawkgirl90 for the review! I will do better and proofread my stories five times, and more, to check for errors. Stupid new laptop, it doesn't have any microsoft word in it yet. . .**


	8. A Gift to a Son

**Emolette: (sound effect) crunchcrunchcrunchcrunch. . .**

**Naruto: Emo-chan, what're you eating?**

**Emolette: Cracker nuts, crunchcrunchcrunch. . .**

**Sasuke: Are they good?**

**Emolette: -hands them bag of Nagaraya Cracker Nuts- See for yourself.**

**Sasuke & Naruto: crunchcrunchcrunch. . .**

**Naruto: Wow, these are good.**

**Sasuke: I'd hate to admit it, but they are.**

**Emolette: Cracker nuts are my favorite snack. I also like roasted peanuts. Peanuts are good.**

**Sasuke: crunchcrunchcrunch. . . You seem less. . . enthusiastic today.**

**Emolette: crunchcrunchcrunch -shrugs- This is a filler chapter. . . so I'm in a laid back mood now. . . crunchcrunchcrunch. . . Let's just start the chappie. . .**

**Naruto & Sasuke: crunchcrunchcrunch**

**Chapter Eight**

**" A Gift to a Son "**

Naruto sat in the lounge of the treehouse, feeling the wind blow through the open windows and making his skin tingle. The lounge was just as large as the training room, though it was filled with comfy couches and shelves full of books and scrolls instead of weights and training equipment. Naruto was sitting on one of these comfy couches with the scroll that Kakashi gave him sitting just a few inches from him. The blond was sitting there for the past hour, just staring at the scroll, not really sure if he wanted to open it. He didn't even ponder on why Sasuke hasn't come looking for him. Maybe Kakashi told him. Maybe not.

**Just open it kit**

_. . ._

**Oh, giving me the cold shoulder are we?**

_. . ._

**If you won't open it, I'll just take control of your arms and open it for you. . .**

_. . . Kyuu. . ._

**. . . Yes kit?**

_. . . I know you taught me not to be afraid of anything. . . but I think I'm afraid right now. . ._

**Yes, I did teach you not to be afraid of anything, but you're human. You have emotions and you can't help but be afraid sometimes, even with simple matters like this.**

_Yeah, I guess so._

**Now open it. There's nothing to be afraid of.**

Naruto took a deep breath, calming himself with a meditation technique, then he picked up the scroll as his bit his thumb and spread blood on the seal. There was a small poof and a cloud of smoke came from the scroll, a signal that the seal opened. When the smoke cleared, Naruto was able to spread the scroll across his lap and read it.

On the first part of the scroll were three names. One was Namikaze Minato, another was Uzumaki Kushina, and yet another was Sarutobi Hiruzen. They had also blood seals on them, so Naruto bit his thumb again (his previous bite healed, of course) and he first opened the one from his father. He spread some blood onto the seal and in another cloud of smoke, a letter appeared on the scroll. Naruto picked it up, unfolded it, and stared at the contents, not really reading it. The paper was, surprisingly, well-preserved and didn't crumble under Naruto's touch, but the letter itself was hastily written, yet wasn't unreadable. After taking another deep breath, Naruto began to read the letter his father wrote for him.

_Dear Naruto,_

_If you are reading this, then that means I am no longer in this world. I am writing this at 3:26 on the morning of October 10. You were just born two hours ago, yet I regret to say that I am not able to watch you grow into the responsible young man that I dream of seeing for I will be sacrificing my life in order to seal the Kyuubi, who is attacking the village at this very moment, in a vessel._

_I also regret to say that. . . you are that vessel Naruto._

_I am going to be using the __**Hakke Fuuin Shiki**__ to seal the Kyuubi inside of your body to save our village. Please, do not hate me for what I've done. I hope you understand that I couldn't ask anyone else to sacrifice their own child and that using you was my absolute last resort. I desperately tried to find an alternative, but sadly, there is no other way. I am not strong enough to destroy the King of Bijuus, nor is any human. My last wish is for the villagers to see you as a hero, as the one who stopped the Kyuubi from advancing and thoroughly destroying our home. I hope that they will honor my wish. You are a hero Naruto, do not forget that._

_Your mother has also left a letter for you. _(in the next sentences, the ink was blotched and smudged, probably because of teardrops)_ I'm extrem- sad to say tha- -our mother, Uzumak- Kushi- had died shortly aft- giv- birth to you. I -oved her ver- mu- and did -s much as I cou- tryin- -o sa- her, bu- I couldn't. She passed away in my -rms with a smi- on her fac-. I -ope yo- hav- her smil-. She had th- mos- beau-ful smile, an- you wil- too- if you hav- -t._

_Please don't be sad for us Naru-chan. It's not your fault, none of this is your fault. We are all born innocent, and so were you. You were such a beautiful and innocent baby. Seeing you in your mother's arms was the most happiest moment in my life, hands down. I'm proud to be your father. And even if it was for a short time, I'm glad that I was able to see you. I have no regrets except that I can't be there for you. But know that your mother and I love you very, very much and, wherever we are in the afterlife, we would do anything to come back and be by your side._

_Good bye Naruto, for now. I will see you whenever we're both ready._

_Lots of love, your father._

Naruto stopped reading. There was a stinging on the back of his throat and his eyes blurred as tears filled up in them. The young blond took a deep breath, trying to stop that painful stinging, and he wiped his tears with the back of his hand. He exhaled a breath and it came out rattled and cracked. He choked back another cry and wiped his eyes once again as it didn't want to be dry. He bit his tongue and tried to calm himself down long enough to break the seal on his mother's name and open the folded letter. Making sure that he was calm, Naruto started to read. The handwriting was much calmer and easier to read in this letter and Naruto read it hungrily.

_My dearest baby boy,_

_You are such a beautiful baby. You look so much like your father with your sun-kissed hair and cerulean eyes that look like oceans. When I held you in my arms, it was the happiest moment in my life, hands down. _(Naruto slightly smiled at this for that was exactly what his father said) _I can't wait to take you home and change your diapers and clothes and give you baths and feed you and tuck you in at night while singing a lullaby. Back in my former home of the whirlpool country, I never dreamed that I would have a family. Before, I've always belived that I was destined to be alone, until I met your father._

_Did you know that I used to hate your father before? He was such a prankster and I just hated him for his immature ways. I actually met him when I took my first steps into Konoha. He set up a couple dozen buckets of water on top of the gate and when I walked by, I triggered the strings and the buckets of water fell onto me. He was nearby and he was laughing like crazy. Of course, that was short lived when I blew my top and very nearly pummeled him to death. I thought that I would never see that blond, blue-eyed creature after that, but destiny called for it and I just kept bumping into him all over the village. I slowly warmed up to his presense, and eventually fell in love with him. Imagine my surprise when he fell for me also. I was so happy when he asked me to marry him. We were on top of the Hokage monuments when he popped the question._

_And then, shortly after our wedding, I recieved the news that I was pregnant with you. That was the best news I recieved in years and you should've seen your father when he heard the news. He looked like he was ready to shout it out to the world and I wouldn't have blamed him if he did. He was also so very excited that he was going to be father. He wanted to care for you as much as I did, so I told him that he should give birth to you if he wanted to mother you also. _(Naruto slightly smiled at this also)

_Well, I guess that is all I have to say for now, except know that I love you Naru-chan. Live or die, I will still love you with all of my heart. And I know about your father's plan to get rid of the Kyuubi. If he decides to use you, just remember I love you, no matter what you are._

_See you Naru-chan._

_Hugs and kisses, you mother._

Naruto looked up and blinked rapidly, feeling that stinging pain at the back of his throat again as he held back tears. He didn't want to cry. He hasn't cried in years and he didn't want to start now. But the thought of his mother and father writing these letters in their last moments, even though his mother didn't know that, just made him feel. . . sad. This was a different kind of sadness that he had never felt before. It wasn't the sadness of lonliness or rejection or even hate (yes, you are sad when you hate), but it was the sadness of losing someone you love.

Naruto let the tears fall and his eyes burned as they did so, but he still choked back his cries. The blond clutched the two letters to his chest. They were the only things that proved that his parents lived and loved him. They were the only memoirs he had of them, and he wanted to preserve them forever. . .

"Naruto, are you here?!" cried a voice and Naruto jumped. He quickly wiped his eyes free of any tears and fixed himself up as Sasuke entered the room.

"Aa, Sasuke," he said, though it was a bit too quiet.

"Naruto, we'll be meeting tomorrow at the bridge for our first mission," said Sasuke, sitting next to Naruto. "We'll be doing D-rank missions for some time since we're only genins - "

Sasuke stopped talking when he realized Naruto wasn't even listening. He saw the letters Naruto clutched in his hands and the scroll that was spread onto his lap. Sasuke looked at his face and saw one lone tear slide down his cheek. Sasuke has never seen Naruto cry, but he was senseless enough not to question as to why he was crying. Instead, being the good friend that he is, Sasuke reached over and wiped the tear off of Naruto's face.

"You hungry?" he asked. "I can fix something up for you, seeing that you didn't finish your bento earlier."

". . . Sure," was all Naruto said before Sasuke stood up and left the room.

When Sasuke was gone, another tear slid down Naruto's face but his lips curved into a smile for some reason.

**Emolette: -sigh- I'm bored.**

**Sasuke: Want me to screw you again?**

**Emolette: No.**

**Naruto: You have writer's block or something?**

**Emolette: Maybe. I need some inspriration. . . or maybe just something to give me an energy boost.**

**Sasuke: What should we do to get your blood pumping?**

**Naruto: I know! Why don't we teach you some taijutsu?**

**Emolette: Despite how much I would love that, I'm not the athletic type.**

**Naruto: Well then, whaddya want us to do?**

**Emolette: Hm. . . -evil glint in eyes- . . .**

**Sasuke: -shivers- I've seen that glint before. . .**

**Naruto: -shivers- So have I. . .**

**Emolette: -takes out video camera with evil grin- Now, Naru-kun, why don't you let Sasu-kun undress you and. . .**

**Naruto: NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! SHE'S A SASUNARU FANGIRL TOO! -runs like there was no more ramen in the world-**

**Sasuke: NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! SHE'S GOING TO MAKE ME RAPE THE DOBE! -runs like Orochimaru came back from the dead-**

**Emolette: GET BACK HERE YOU TWO!!! I WILL MAKE YOU DO WHAT I WANT YOU TO DO!!!- runs after them with a very dirty scene in mind-**

**Mysterious Announcer Dude: Due to the absense of the author and her two. . . friends (cough"victims"cough) . . . the chapter will end here. See you in the Wave Arc!**


	9. AN: Happy Birthday!

Emolette: Yeah! The date today is October 10, 2008! You all know what that means!

Sasuke: What?

Naruto: It's my birthday!!

Emolette: That's right, so happy birthday Naru-kun!

Naruto: Yahoo! Happy birthday to me!

Sasuke: -sigh- Guess I have no choice. Happy birthday Naruto.

Naruto: TT

Sasuke: -sweatdrop- What?

Naruto: You never greeted me a happy birthday before. . . I'm so touched! -cries eyes out-

Sasuke & Emolette: -sweatdrop-

Emolette: -cough- Anyway, I've got something for you Naruto.

Naruto: -eyes still dripping tears- What is it?

Emolette: -smirk- Back in a flash!

(one flash later)

Emolette: Here I am!

Naruto & Sasuke: -stares-

Sasuke: Why're you cosplaying me?

Emolette: Because I look better as a Sasuke.

Naruto: Is this my present from you?

Emolette: Not yet. First, I have to call upon my imaginary dream guy.

Dream Guy: Hi.

Naruto & Sasuke: -stares-

Naruto: Why is he cosplaying me?

Emolette: -smirk- It 's because I want to show you this. . .

(Emolette then grabs Dream guy and kisses him full on the lips, tongue and everything)

Naruto & Sasuke: O.O WTFH?!

Emolette and Dream Guy: -breaks apart and licks lips-

Emolette: Mm. Did the camrea get that?

Dream Guy: -checks hidden camera- Yup, including their reactions.

Emolette: Yay!

Naruto: YOU DRESSED UP AS SASUKE AND THIS NONEXISTENT GUY DRESSES UP AS ME AND YOU KISS HIM!! ALL FOR YOUR STUPID YAOI DESIRES!!

Emolette: XP Yup. You should've seen your faces -snickers-

Sasuke: . . I have been scarred for life. . . besides the older-brother-kills-whole-clan thing

Naruto: This is why we don't have the internet in Konoha!

Emolette: That went better then I expected. Anyway, happy birthday Naruto!

Naruto: This is the most traumatizing birthday ever!!

Emolette: XP Exactly as I planned it. . .


	10. Mission to the Waves: Part 1

**Emolette: Gah! Argh! Stupid stupid stupid!!!**

**Naruto: Ano, Emo-chan, what's going on with you?**

**Emolette: You should know dobe! I haven't updated in weeks! I'm so sorry readers! T.T**

**Sasuke: It's not your fault. You were busy with finals and had alot to do.**

**Naruto: Your mom also kept on borrowing your laptop.**

**Emolette:: T.T And it's so hard describing fight scenes. I can imagine it well, but finding the right words to describe it is torture!**

**Naruto: Well. . . you're in chapter nine now at least!**

**Emolette: -sigh- Yeah. . . I guess it's now time for chapter nine. . . hey that rhymes^^**

**Naruto & Sasuke: -sweatdrop-**

**Chapter Nine**

**" Mission to the Waves: Part I "**

One month. It has been one month since Team 7 has been formed and all they have been doing were measly D-rank missions for thirty days. Not that Naruto nor Saske minded, they just got bored easily. So far, the only mission they had that made their blood pump a tiny bit faster was the capturing of Tora the cat. She had run away from her master three times and each time, Team 7 was sent to find her. Sakura caught her the first time, then Sasuke, and now, Naruto was holding her by the scruff of the neck as the team stood in front of the Hokage and Iruka, who were giving out the missions.

"Oh thank you very much for finding my Tora-chan!" cried the fat rich lady who owned the poor cat.

_Just wrap your hand around it's neck and put it out of it's misery Naruto,_ thought the blond as the tabby cat scratched at his hand accompanied by hissing noises. The stupid cat was the only thing that ticked Naruto off for he had obtained a couple of scratches to the face the last two times they went looking for her.

As casually as he could, Naruto slipped his hand around the feline's neck, only to have it snatched out of his hands by the owner.

"Oh Tora-chan! Mommy missed you so much!" cried the lady and the cat meowed in pain as she was smothered in the death hugs and wet kisses her owner gave her. Naruto smirked at the cat's torture.

_Yeah, that's so much worse then death_, he thought, trying not to grin.

"Mission accomplished again Team 7," said Iruka with a nod.

Sarutobi smirked. "You've been finishing each mission we gave you with ease, so I think we should get you a higher ranking mission this time," he said.

_FINALLY!!! _thought all three genins and Kakashi (even he got bored being stuck with D-rank missions).

"This one's a C-rank," said Iruka, glancing at his papers. "You must escort a bridge builder to the Country of Waves."

As if on cue, the door slid open behind Team 7 and an old man wearing a straw hat and holding a jug of sake stepped inside, steadying himself on the doorframe.

"Huh?" he said, staring at the team. "A bunch of brats are going to escort me?"

"Team 7, this is Tazuna, master bridge builder," said Sarutobi.

"Tch, they all look weak to me, especially the blondie," said Tazuna, pointing a finger at Naruto.

Naruto stared at the old man, who stared back with a raised eyebrow, and said blond boy walked over to him and put a hand on his shoulder.

"Don't worry Tazuna-san, we'll escort you safely to your home," he said with a smile. "Unless. . . I don't kill you first for pissing me off," he added in a whisper that only Tazuna heard, dropping the smile and looking at the old man with his unemotional blue eyes that flashed red for just a brief moment.

Tazuna stared, his mouth slightly agape, and Naruto smiled at him again before turning to Kakashi.

"Ne, Kakashi-sensei, when do we leave?" he asked cheerfully.

"One hour," said Kakashi, pretending that he didn't notice what Naruto did. "We'll meet at the gate."

The team filed out of the room past Tazuna. Naruto gave a smirk to the old man, Sakura gave him a kind smile, and as Sasuke passed by, the Uchiha gave him a smirk also.

"Don't think that he's not serious," he whispered to the bridge builder. "He will kill you if you piss him off. So if I were you, I'd keep that warning in mind."

Sasuke walked away, and Tazuna just stared into space.

_Who. . . are those kids?_

One hour later, Team 7 plus the bridge builder were at the gate, ready to head off. Tazuna stayed well away from both Naruto and Sasuke, afraid that they'll kill him just for being too close to them. Naruto and Sasuke were whispering to each other though and didn't even notice the old bridge builder.

"So, what kind of ingredient can we find in the wave country?" asked Naruto as Sasuke skimmed the piece of paper he brought which contained the list of ingredients for the Side-Effect Negation potion.

"Hm. . . I don't think we can find anything in that poor country," said Sasuke, looking up from the list. "Does Kyuu-san know anything?"

**The wave country used to be properous. I doubt there'd be anything left, but we might be able to find the ocean lilies there, since the village is next to the ocean.**

"Kyuu says we might be able to find ocean lilies there," said Naruto.

"That makes sense," said Sasuke, pocketing the list.

"Hey guys, what're the two of you whispering about?" asked Sakura, looking over at the two friends.

"Nothing," they said simultaneously.

"Well, if you're done chatting, we can be on our way," said Kakashi, his eyes on his orange book.

"Hai sensei," said the two boys though they glared at Kakashi, annoyed that he still has that useless (and disgusting) book.

And Team 7 headed off. Sakura led the group (for some reason) with Tazuna behind her. Sasuke and Naruto walked side-by-side behind the bridge builder (who didn't like that at all) and Kakashi took up the rear, nose still in his book. They walked for most of the day and took three breaks (including lunch break). It wouldn't take them too long to reach the country. If they continue like this, they might be able to make it by nightfall the next day.

The three genins, jounin, and old man walked down a wide dirt road, not changing their formation. Naruto was lost in his own thoughts, not thinking about anything in particular, just letting his mind wander. He liked to think about random things. It was fun, at least for him, that way, he could never get bored. Even though he didn't look like it, Naruto was a patient person (for most things at least).

Naruto looked up at the bright blue sky that had a couple clouds lazily float by. He lowered his eyes and looked at the ground, seeing dirt and rocks and blades of grass and leaves and. . . a puddle?

_Well well well. Seems like this old man has been hiding a couple secrets of his own._

Naruto glanced sideways to Sasuke, who also noticed the puddle and they curtly nodded to each other. Naruto then hung back until Kakashi caught up with him.

"Kakashi-sensei," said Naruto.

"Aa, Naruto," said the silver-haired jounin, not looking up from his book.

Then, from behind them, the puddle exploded and two cloaked ninjas wearing Kirigakure hitai-ates jumped out of it. Sasuke ran towards Sakura and Tazuna, yelling for them to get down. Naruto turned around, kunai and shuriken in hand, and he threw them to the two ninjas. The Kiri ninjas easily swapped the weapons away with their gauntlets and they ran towards Kakashi, who _seemed_ to be too slow in his reaction. Spiked chains appeared from the large gauntlets and wrapped around Kakashi, ripping him apart.

"Kakashi-sensei!" cried Sakura and Tazuna's eyes went wide with shock.

"Sakura, help me protect the old man!" cried Sasuke, taking a stance beside the bridge builder and holding up a kunai.

"But Naruto's - "

"Don't worry about him! He'll take care of it!"

Meanwhile, after the Kiri ninjas (supposedly) killed Kakashi, they headed towards Tazuna, who was only protected by Sasuke and Sakura, but Naruto appeared in their path.

"You're not going anywhere," said the blond with a grin and he charged at the attackers, crossing the first two fingers of both his hands.

"Don't get in our way gaki," said one ninja.

"Or we'll just kill you," said the other.

"Heh, don't count on it," said Naruto, and two kage bunshins appeared beside him in clouds of smoke.

The Kiri ninjas raised their gauntlets, ready to slash at the kage bunshins, but the bunshins suddenly appeared behind them, grins on their faces.

"Too slow," they said in unison and the Kiri ninjas recieved kicks to the the face, powerful kicks that sent them flying through the air and crashing into a tree. The original Naruto did hand signs and formed a hook at his mouth with his two fingers, facing the spot where the attackers crashed into their respective tree.

"**Katon: Ryuuka no Jutsu**!" cried Naruto and a stream of fire blasted from his mouth, burning the two ninjas to a crisp. They screamed in pain. Apparently, their clothes weren't fireproof.

"I think you overdid it Naruto," said a voice and Kakashi appeared behind Naruto (much to Sakura's and Tazuna's surprise).

"You're late as usual," said Naruto, not looking at the jounin as he walked towards the others and Kakashi's eye curved upward as he followed Naruto.

"Kakashi-sensei! You're alive!" cried Sakura, feeling overjoyed that their teacher was not ripped into pieces.

"Of course he is," said Sasuke, pocketing his kunai with an annoyed expression on his face. "But why he had to hang back while Naruto fought, I have no idea."

"Gomen, gomen," said Kakashi, rubbing the back of his head. _I wanted to see if Naruto could really fight the way he did in the Bell Test._ "Anyway, good job everyone, especially Naruto, but now we have no one to interrogate."

"That's no problem," said Naruto, facing Tazuna. "We already have one right here."

"Wha-What do you mean Naruto?" asked Sakura, looking from Naruto to Tazuna and back.

"Those Kiri ninjas were after someone," explained Naruto, looking at Tazuna with emotionless eyes, but it still made the old man nervous. "They couldn't possibly be after us lowly genins, and if they were after Kakashi-sensei, then why didn't they stop after they supposedly got rid of him? The only person they could possibly be after is. . . this old bridge builder. Am I right, Tazuna-san?"

Tazuna looked at the ground, feeling shame wash over him. The three genins and lone jounin stared at him, waiting for him to answer.

". . . Gomen," said Taunza, not looking up. "I didn't expect that they'd hire kids to escort me back home."

"But you did expect genins," said Kakashi. "There aren't many genins who're experienced in battle for most genins are in their early to late teens in Konoha. You should've known that Tazuna-san."

"Why did you say this was only a C-rank mission?" asked Sasuke. "If people are after your life, then we are not your escorts but bodyguards, which is categorized as A-rank."

"Gomen nasai," said Tazuna, finally looking up at the four-man cell. "But my country didn't have enough money to pay for a A-rank, so I lied and said it was only C-rank. But I never thought they'd attack me this soon."

"You could be arrested for this," said Kakashi.

"Gomen," said Tazuna once again and then there was silence.

". . . Ne, Kakashi-sensei," said Sakura, breaking the silence. "What're we going to do now?"

"Hm, let's see," said Kakashi, putting a hand to his chin. "We could go back to Konoha and have Tazuna arrested for giving false information concerning a mission. . . or we can go on with our mission, which is now A-rank, despite the dangers of losing our lives. I'll let you three choose."

Sakura looked uneasily at the ground. She was sure as hell that she didn't want to die (she hasn't had Sasuke fall head-over-heels for her yet!) and the possibility of her losing her life was just plain scary. Sasuke though wasn't as negative and niether was Naruto, who smirked to himself without anyone noticing.

"So, what're your decisions?" asked Kakashi and Tazuna looked at them hopefully.

"I want to keep going," said Sasuke, looking seriously at Kakashi. _We have to find ocean lilies for the potion._

"There's no way in hell I'm backing out from an A-rank mission," said Naruto with smirk. _Besides, we might find some strong opponents. This could be fun._

"What about you Sakura?" asked Kakashi.

"Well, I don't want to be left behind," said Sakura, narrowing her eyes. "And maybe this mission might make me a little bit stronger, so I'll go." _If Sasuke-kun's going, then I'm right behind him SHANNARO!!!_

"Yosh, then it's decided," said Kakashi, taking out his book and burying his nose in it again (much to the annoyance of his subordinates). "We're heading towards the wave country. You guys better hurry up."

_Perverted one-eyed scarecrow,_ thought Naruto.

_Stupid good-for-nothing author who wrote that damn book,_ thought Sasuke.

_Sasuke-kun's so cool!_ thought Sakura.

_I'm going to die, I just know it,_ thought Tazuna.

_Hm. . . now where was I? Ah yes. . ._ was Kakashi's thoughts, trailing away as he read his erotic book.

As they traveled for the rest of the day and the next morning, the team and Tazuna were extremely quiet, always expecting an attack even when they were resting. But even though they were quiet, they were all doing their own little thing. Naruto and Sasuke were immersed in their thoughts yet wary of their surroundings, Sakura was busy eyeballing Sasuke, Kakashi momentarily put his book away (finally!) to watch his surroundings, and Tazuna was also swimming in his thoughts but was nervously glancing every which way.

Kakashi suddenly stopped in his tracks, glancing at every tree and bush that was near. He looked around, sensing that something was close, yet he didn't know what it was. Naruto and Sasuke also sensed it and their eyes scanned every tree and bush that stood near them. Sakura and Tazuna mimicked their movements, wondering what was going on. Then, a bush rustled nearby. Everyone's eyes turned to it for a moment until a small white rabbit jumped out of it, it's tiny pink nose twitching.

"False alarm," said Sakura to herself, but was then knocked down by Naruto (Tazuna was knocked down by Sasuke) as an extremely large sword came spinning towards them. The four fell to the ground with a thud and the sword just barely missed them by a foot or two, but it kept on spinning until it lodged itself onto a tree. Kakashi stared at it, kunai at the ready.

"Show yourself!" cried Kakashi, eye narrowed at the sword.

Laughter rang through the air just as Kakashi said those two words. It was a raspy kind of laughter from a deep voice and it made the hairs stand up on Sakura's and Tazuna's skin. The laughter sounded manic and bloodthirsty and it just sent a chill up their spines.

"Well well well, what do we have here," said a voice and a person appeared standing on the handle of the sword that was lodged into the tree. He was as tall as Kakashi but his skin was somewhat a tanned gray and he was shirtless, wearing only a holster for his sword on his muscular chest. He stood with his back onto the team, but he looked over his shoulder and everyone saw that he had a mask of bandages covering the lower half of his face and his hitai-ate was tilted on his head and was worn to the side. It had the Kirigakure emblem on it.

"An enemy," said Kakashi, gripping his kunai a little tighter, though it wasn't clear if he was talking to the stranger or to himself.

The ninja laughed again. "I see we have a bunch of brats and a jounin. This might be easier then I thought. Oh, and it looks like the jounin is none other then Hatake Kakashi. How interesting."

"How does he know Kakashi-sensei?" asked Sakura though nobody answered her.

"Momochi Zabuza," said Kakashi, answering the other's unasked question. "A rogue ninja from Kirigakure. He's known as the Demon of the Mist and is in bingo books everywhere."

"Same to you Kakashi," said Zabuza, his eyes narrowing at the other masked jounin. "Hatake Kakashi, known as the Copy Ninja and is rumored to have copied over a thousand jutsus. You have a hefty price on your head also."

"What do you want Zabuza?" asked Kakashi, getting a bit impatient.

"Well, I think that's pretty obvious," said Zabuza with a slight chuckle. "I'm here to kill the old man."

Sasuke, Naruto, and Sakura immediately got up and stood around Tazuna to protect him. Tazuna was already feeling the fear, his knees shook slightly, and Sakura was feeling quite nervous herself, but Naruto and Sasuke were feeling the exact opposite. In fact, they were feeling quite excited.

"Hey Sasuke, this guy looks pretty strong doesn't he?" said Naruto with a smirk, reaching into his pouch and taking out a kunai.

"Yeah, he does," agreed Sasuke with an identical smirk, also taking out a kunai.

"Oh, looks like your students want to fight also," said Zabuza. "But I'm not interested in brats. I'm more interest in _your sharingan_ Kakashi."

Kakashi just glared but Sakura looked wide-eyed at her sensei. _Kakashi-sensei has the sharingan?_

"I don't think I want to show you my power Zabuza," said Kakashi with a slight smirk under his mask.

"What?" said Zabuza, glaring at the Konoha jounin.

"You heard me," said Kakashi. "I'm not going to show you my power. You're underestimating my students, especially Naruto and Sasuke, and they don't like that see. So, I think I'm going to leave this battle to them."

"Heh, do you really think two lowly genins can defeat me?" said Zabuza.

"Of course not," said Kakashi and he smirked when Sasuke appeared in front of Zabuza, seeing a smirk on the twelve-year-old's face. "I think two powerful kids are going to kill you."

"What the - " said Zabuza and he barely dodged a kick from Sasuke. He jumped down from the tree, grabbing his sword in the process, and he landed in a kneeling position on the ground, holding his sword to his back with his right hand and forming a hand sign with his left.

"Heh, you're pretty fast kid," said Zabuza as Sasuke landed back in his spot beside Naruto. "But let's see how well you fight when you can't see your enemy. . . **Kirigakure no Jutsu**!"

At Zabuza's words, a thick fog started to roll in and cover everything in bluish gray mist, making it almost impossible to see three feet in front of you. Zabuza's laugh rang through the foggy air and the three genins crowded around Tazuna, kunais at the ready. Kakashi stood close to his team, holding his kunai up. His lone eye flitted around, searching for their enemy, but it was just impossible to see through the fog. Not even the Copy Ninja can see through the fog with his sharingan for it wasn't his own sharingan and he wasn't an Uchiha, but there was one who could.

"Sharingan!" said Sasuke, activating his bloodline that turned his eyes a blood red color with three tomoes decorating it.

"Find him Sasuke," urged Naruto. The Uchiha didn't need to be told twice as he scanned his surroundings.

"Oh, so this brat's an Uchiha huh?" said Zabuza's voice. "But you won't be able to stop me from my goal!"

Sasuke turned around with realization, but Zabuza was already standing there behind Tazuna, sword posed in his hand

"You're dead old man," said the rogue ninja and he swung his sword, intending to slice the old bridge builder apart.

Sakura let out a startled gasp, Sasuke and Kakashi cursed, Tazuna was about to yell, but they were all cut off by a loud clang. They, including Zabuza, stared in surprise when Naruto appeared in front of the Kiri ninja, completely blocking the sword with his kunai with amazing strength.

"What the hell? How can you block my attack so easily?" asked a shocked Zabuza. Naruto pushed the jounin away a couple feet in another amazing feat of strength and Zabuza stared wide-eyed at the blond.

". . . Kakashi-sensei told you that we don't like to be underestimated," said Naruto, glaring at Zabuza with killing intent. "You'll learn that the hard way, like the scarecrow did."

"Don't get cocky gaki," said Zabuza, readying his sword again.

Naruto spun the kunai in his hand and returned it to his pouch. Before anyone can ask why, Naruto uwrapped a portion of bandages on his left arm, revealing a storage tattoo, and he bit his right thumb, drawing blood. Without hesitating, Naruto smeared blood on the tattoo and he was momentarily engulfed in a cloud of smoke. When the smoke cleared away, everyone but Sasuke gasped at what Naruto was holding in his hand.

". . . Kyuubi no Shikon," said Naruto with a smirk, pointing the thin broad sword towards Zabuza. The sword was as tall as Naruto and, even though it was a broad sword, it was thin, probably just a few inches wider then an ordinary katana. The design was impressive also; the blade was blood red with a nine-tailed fox etched onto both sides and the hilt and guard were black with tiny flecks of red that seemed to glimmer like rubies (but if you look more closely, it'll look more like flecks of blood). Zabuza stared at it for a moment with wide eyes, then he narrowed them at the blond.

"I admit I'm impressed gaki," he said, readying his own sword. "but just because you have that doesn't mean a thing."

"My my, looks like eyebrowless still needs to learn a thing or two." said Naruto, bringing his sword to the side of his face, the blade still pointed at the rogue ninja. "And I'm just the brat to teach 'em to ya'!"

Naruto charged forward with amazing speed and Zabuza was caught off guard, barely having a second to block the shikon with his own blade. Naruto's strength made Zabuza skid backwards a few feet and the jounin had to dig his toes into the ground to stop. He looked into the blond's cerulean eyes and was shocked to see a red glint in them as he grinned manically. The Kiri ninja recognized the bloodthirsty look for he himself sported it quite a few times.

"Just what the hell are you?" whispered the jounin as he threw the blond off of him.

Naruto landed softly on the ground a few meters away from Zabuza and he looked at the rogue nin with the same bloodthirsty look.

"You wanna know what I am?" asked Naruto as he stuck his shikon into the ground and made a cross with the first two fingers of both his hands. ". . . I'm a demon like you! **Tajuu Kage Bunshin no Jutsu**!"

More then a few hundred Narutos, each with their own shikon, appeared, surrounding Zabuza and the latter looked around with wide eyes, overcome by the sheer number of them.

"But there's also a huge difference between us demons," said the original Naruto, grabbing his shikon and resting it on his shoulder, his eyes hidden in his hair. "You're just an ant, compared to an elephant. . . Guess who's the elephant."

The kage bunshins charged, crying out war cries, and Zabuza swung his sword around, slicing through five of them but having four hundred to go. He charged, slashing his sword around with skill, first to the right, then to the left, in front of him, to the back of him, even above him were a couple jumped up, intending to come down at him. But even more came and the strain of swinging his sword around like this was starting to get to him, since he hadn't fought so intensely in more then a while. In short, he was rusty and needed polishing.

"Damnit!" cried Zabuza as he threw off another couple clones. He needed to retreat and formulate a plan first, but how? That may be a kid, but he was stronger then he looked. Zabuza ran and the clones followed. Since the fog was still pretty thick, Zabuza dispersed it a bit, just enough to see where he was going. That was when he saw a lake close by.

_Bingo,_ he thought and he jumped up and landed on the water's surface, quickly doing hand signs.

"**Suiton: Daibakufu no Jutsu**!" he cried and a large pillar of water sprouted up from the lake and headed towards the army of clones. The pillar of water crashed down onto them, making them disappear in puffs of smoke. Zabuza smirked beneath his mask, but it was quickly wiped off his face when the original Naruto appeared a few feet away from him, holding his shikon against his back.

"That was an awesome jutsu!" said the blond boy, grinning a fox-like grin. "I know that jutsu also, but it uses up some chakra doesn't it? Still, you're pretty strong, probably the strongest I've faced in a while."

Zabuza glared at Naruto, then he smirked.

"The old man's defenseless now," he said and that was followed by a loud shriek.

"What's going on? I can't see a thing?" asked Sakura, trying to peer through the thick fog.

Sasuke ignored the girl and continued watching Naruto fight Zabuza. He wanted to fight also, but he got beat to by the blond. It was always first come first serve with the two of them, especially when it came to fighting opponents.

"Sasuke, can you see anything?" asked Kakashi.

"Yeah, Naruto's easily fighting off Zabuza," said Sasuke. "I'm sure he's going to win."

"How could he win? He's the dead last in our class." said Sakura matter-of-factly.

"Shut up," said Sasuke with annoyance. "You still don't get it do you? Naruto is more powerful than you think, even more powerful then me, so stop saying that he's dead last."

Sakura instantly shut up and Kakashi slightly smiled under his mask. _Looks like I'm not the only one who wants to stomp out Sakura's fangirlism._

Then, for some reason, the fog started to disperse. Everyone looked around and saw Zabuza standing on the surface of the lake. A pillar of water shot up from beside the rogue ninja and it crashed down onto an army of Narutos who all had red swords in their hands. They watched in awe as the original Naruto appeared a few feet away from Zabuza, standing easily on the water's surface. They were talking about something, but they didn't noticed the water around them bubbling and taking form. It was only until Zabuza said something that Sasuke and Kakashi sensed the mizu bunshins and turned around just in time to block giant swords.

Sakura shrieked when a bunshin Zabuza appeared in front of her, sword posed to slice her up, but Sasuke quickly threw a kunai at it and it disappeared in a swirl of water. Kakashi had three mizu bunshins on him and, even though they were only bunshins, he was having a bit of trouble with them. Why? Well, it was probably because of the three senbons that were sticking out of his neck, stuck in there by a mizu bunshin Zabuza.

_Damn! When we get back to Konoha I am so gonna train my butt off. I'm getting too rusty and lazy._ thought Kakashi as his vision started to blur and he felt his strength draining from his body.

Sasuke threw off the bunshin he was fighting with and turned around to see Kakashi in trouble. The Uchiha cursed to himself, then summoned a kage bunshin to guard Tazuna and Sakura before he went to Kakashi and threw off the three mizu bunshins that were surrounding said jounin.

"Kakashi-sensei," said Sasuke as Kakashi fell to his knees.

"Damn, I'm pathetic," was Kakashi's words before he fully went into unconsciousness.

"What's wrong with Kakashi-sensei?" asked Sakura, her knees slightly shaking but forcing herself to look strong.

"Poison," was Sasuke explaination as he rolled Kakashi onto his back. Sasuke then put an ear on the jounin's chest and was glad to hear a heartbeat. He then took out the senbons from his sensei's neck and sniffed them. _A common poison intended to strike the nervous system and shut it down quickly. Easy enough to cure though._

Sasuke then dug around in his pouch before taking out a bottle and a couple of senbons. Soaking the senbons in the liquid from the bottle, Sasuke then stuck them in precision points to help fight the poison.

"When did you learn the medical arts and acupuncture Sasuke-kun?" asked Sakura, awed by Sasuke's quick action.

"Years ago," was Sasuke's answer as he put the bottle and senbons back in his pouch. "Now, we just have to wait for Naruto."

"Looks like you underestimated Sasuke also," said Naruto with a smirk as he and Zabuza watched Sasuke fight off the mizu bunshins and cure Kakashi's poisoning.

"You little - " said Zabuza but he couldn't finish the insult for Naruto charged at him and sword struck against sword with a loud clang.

"You shouldn't let your guard down even for one second Zabuza," said Naruto, grinning his fox-like grin. "Especially when you're fighting against me!"

"Damn you gaki!" cried Zabuza, throwing off Naruto and jumping a few meters away, placing his sword on his back. He then started on a series of hand signs, which Naruto recognized.

"Well, two can pay at that game," he said, sticking his sword in the water (using chakra to make it float there) and doing the exact same handsigns that Zabuza was doing.

"**Suiton: Suiryuudan no Jutsu**!" cried both ninjas and two giant pillars of water shaped like dragons burst from the surface of the lake, crashing into each other. Naruto and Zabuza fought hard, wanting to know who will dominate the battle. The water dragons roared as they interwined and Zabuza glared at the young shinobi whom he was fighting.

_Damn that kid! How could he know jounin level ninjutsu?_

Naruto smirked as he saw Zabuza glare at him. _He doesn't have as much chakra as I do, but he'll be able to keep this up for a while longer. Maybe a little swordplay will tire him out a bit._

Naruto let go of the water jutsu and grabbed his sword as he charged towards Zabuza. The rogue ninja saw this and dispelled his own jutsu as he grabbed his sword and blocked Naruto's shikon. The two then put on a show with their swords, which clanged with every hit and shot off sparks because of the sheer force. Naruto wasn't even fighting at full strength yet Zabuza felt a bit overwhelmed at the twelve-year-old's power.

"Damn gaki," growled Zabuza under his mask as he readied himself for another attack but Naruto appeared behind him.

"Too slow eyebrowless!" cried the blond with a grin and he swung his sword sideways.

"Gah!" cried Zabuza as he caught Naruto's powerful attack and was flung to shore, crashing into a tree. Naruto appeared in front of him, his sword pointed towards the rogue nin.

"It's over Zabuza," said the blond jinchuuriki, his face free of any emotion.

"Like hell it is," rasped Zabuza as he struggled to his feet.

Naruto just raised his sword, intending to bring it down and end the rogue ninja's pitiful life, but suddenly, with a zing, a kunai sliced through the fog and struck Naruto's hand, making the blond drop his sword. Naruto stared at his hand with a mildly shocked expression before a masked figure appeared next to Zabuza and helped him to his feet.

"Who the hell are you?" asked Naruto, narrowing his eyes at the masked figure.

"You do not need to know that information," said the masked figure with a surprisingly soft voice. "But we will meet again Konoha shinobi."

The figure then did a hand sign and he and Zabuza disappeared in a swirl of leaves. Immediately after, the fog started to disperse and Naruto could see his two teammates come over.

"Naruto!" cried Sasuke, running over to his friend.

"Where'd Zabuza go?" asked Sakura, looking around as if expecting the rogue ninja jump out of a bush.

"He got carried off by one of his accomplices." answered Naruto, picking up his sword from the ground and returning it to his storage seal.

"Naruto, your hand!" said Sakura, pointing at Naruto's hand where a kunai was still lodged in. "Here, let me help - "

"No need," said Naruto as he pulled the kunai out without showing any pain on his face then licked some blood that was dripping down his arm. Sakura looked completely grossed out by the action.

"Doesn't that hurt? And taste bad?" she asked, the color fading out of her face as she tried not to hurl.

"Nope, not at all." said Naruto, wrapping the wound with bandages. "How's Kakashi?"

"Not well, but better then dead," said Sasuke, looking back at where Tazuna was kneeling next to an unconscious Kakashi.

"Well, we have to get going before anyone else decides to put us in their bingo book," said Naruto, walking over to the old man and jounin.

"Right behind you," said Sasuke, following Naruto.

"Man, who are these people I'm with?" Sakura asked herself before following her teammates.

They didn't notice a masked figure watching them from the cover of the trees.

**Emolette: The ending sucked yet again. -sigh-**

**Sasuke: Don't be too depressed.**

**Naruto: Says the guy who mourns over his entire clan and chased his brother for revenge only to find out that it was worth nothing.**

**Sasuke: Shut up dobe.**

**Emolette: -sigh- I'm such a sucky writer. . . Yet I have so many ideas for the chuunin exams and for shippuden and stuff, but I have to figure out how to get that hebi teme out of the picture.**

**Sasuke: Just kill him off.**

**Emolette: Easier said then done when the guy spits out a new body whenever he gets attacked. . . I hate that guy.**

**Naruto: Who doesn't? I don't know if he's gay or a pedophile. . . or both.**

**Sasuke: The last one.**

**Emolette: How would you know?**

**Sasuke: . . . I've seen **_**and**_** heard things in his lair that you really don't want to know about. . .**

**Emolette & Naruto: O.O**

**Sasuke: Don't worry, I'm still a virgin.**

**Emolette & Naruto: -sigh of relief-**

**Emolette: Okay, change of subject, a few weeks ago I have found the greatest website that is not about anime, fanfiction, or video sharing. It's called, ^^!**

**Sasuke: I should've known.**

**Emolette: Ne, Sasu-kun, you should register there as Dark Avenger!**

**Sasuke: No.**

**Emolette: Come on! I'm Em0rtal Rayne there! I can add you as my friend!**

**Sasuke: No.**

**Emolette: How 'bout you Naru-kun? You look totally hot as an emo^^**

**Naruto: Thanks, but no thanks.**

**Emolette: You guys suck like a blow job!**

**Sasuke & Naruto: -sweatdrop-**

**Emolette: Readers, you should go there. Just see what they did to the emo kids in Mexico! They beat them up! BEAT THEM! That's discrimination **_**and**_** child abuse you bunch of Spanish ripoffs! And you call yourselves believers of God. Shame on you! Makes me freakin' sick. Why won't anyone beat up preps and jocks huh? What the hell is this world coming to? Beating up emos just because they're different. Not all emos are suicidal cutters bunch of bastards! . . . -continues rant-**

**Sasuke: --sigh- She's ranting.**

**Naruto: -sigh- I guess we have to finish this chapter.**

**Sasuke & Naruto: See'ya in chapter ten. -waves-**

**Emolette: -continued rant- . . . Damn emo discriminators! And just so I can rant more, Bush even said that he'll ban anime in the US a few years back! What the fuck was that about?! There's nothing wrong with anime, besides the fact that it can take over someone's life with the thought of an endless escape from reality. Also, what's this about banning gay and lesbian marraiges? Come on people! We should encourage it! Do we really need more people in this overcrowded world? Just let the homos get married so they can adopt all those orphans out there! This is why I hate politics! . . . -continues-**

**Sasuke & Naruto: -sweatdrop-**

**Naruto: Is she even allowed too rant about this kind of stuff?**

**Sasuke: -shrugs-**


	11. Mission to the Waves: Part 2

**Emolette: Yeah! Chapter ten! Let's party!**

**Naruto: Meh, I don't feel like it.**

**Sasuke: I never feel like partying.**

**Emolette: Pfft. You guys are no fun. . .**

**Sasuke: Change of subject, how's the story going?**

**Emolette: Great, even though I'm late^^!**

**Naruto: How many reviews did you get?**

**Emolette: Ten^^!**

**Naruto & Sasuke: -anime fall-**

**Emolette: But alot of people read it! They added it to their favorites, story alerts, and me to their author alerts. I never thought that my story would be so popular.**

**Naruto: -starts clapping- Not bad for an amateur, huh Sasuke?**

**Sasuke: Yeah, not bad.**

**Emolette: Oh, and Thousand Tailed Holy FangFlash reviewed chapter eight and cried and said that it was awesome with CAPITAL LETTERS!!! He/she even killed him/herself because it was so awesome!**

**Naruto & Sasuke: -sweatdrop-**

**Emolette: Thank you for your kindness! And I hope I can update soon but I'm busy with school and stuff. . . And I can't kill off the banshee because she is vital to the story but there will still be bashing, though not so frequently. . .**

**Naruto: Hey, Thousand Tailed Holy FangFlash sounds like a cool move. Why don't you give it to me Emo-chan?**

**Emolette: Hm. . . Nine Tailed Holy Fang Flash. . . It does sound cool, but I'll have to ask permission first and also, "Holy" Fang Flash? Dude, you're a demon, there's nothing holy about you. . .**

**Sasuke: Then change it to Nine Tailed Demon Fang Flash.**

**Naruto: Nice -slightly evil grin-**

**Emolette: . . . Yeah. . . I'll think about it. . . Okay! Let's start chapter ten! Don't mind me if I rushed it a bit. I'm kinda excited on doing the chuunin exams^^. You'll be seeing Gaara and he's going to be OOC and stuff. . . Say hi to the readers Gaa-kun!**

**Gaara: -waves from afar-**

**Emolette: Ready. . . Set. . . Start!**

**

* * *

Chapter Ten**

**" Mission to the Waves: Part II "**

* * *

Three days has passed since Team 7 had met Zabuza in the forest. After the battle, they continued their trek to the wave country and got there at nightfall. They met Tazuna's daughter, Tsunami, and his grandson, Inari and they have spent three days at their household, mooching off of them since it was the polite thing to do. Since Kakashi was out because of the poisoning, the genins have been taking turns in guarding Tazuna as the old man worked on the bridge that will hopefully make the country prosperous once more. On the morning of the third day, the genins sat around Kakashi's futon, hoping that he will wake up before they head off to do their respective thing. Well, their hopes were answered as Kakashi opened his one eye and groaned.

"Am I dead?" he asked and everyone sweatdropped.

"That was a really stupid question," said Sakura.

"I've heard stupider," said Sasuke and Naruto in unison.

"Ugh, where are we?" asked Kakashi as he struggled to a sitting position.

"We're in the wave country, in Tazuna's house," said Sakura.

"You've been out for three days," said Sasuke.

"Hm, that's the shortest time I've been unconscious," said the one-eyed jounin as he massaged his slightly aching head. "What happened to Zabuza?"

"He would've been dead, if it wasn't for his ANBU accomplice," said Naruto. "They'll be back soon. The ANBU said it himself."

"Crap. That'll make our job even harder."

"When was it easy?"

Kakashi sighed and rubbed his head. "So, who'll guard Tazuna today?" he asked. He didn't want to worry about that rogue ninja now. They'll worry about him when they face him again.

The three genins looked at each other, then they held out their fist and said "Rock, paper, scissors!". Sasuke and Naruto got rock while Sakura got scissors.

"Damnit!" cried Sakura, glaring at her hand.

"It's okay, I'll just have a clone guard him today," said Kakashi, smiling a little under his mask. "I want to train you guys anyway."

"Are you sure you're okay to be moving about now?" asked Sakura.

"I'm fine," said Kakashi, trying to stand up but almost falling over.

"Here, you can use these," said Sasuke, handing Kakashi a pair of crutches. "Your body will take some time to revert back to its normal state."

"Arigato," said Kakashi, steadying himself on the crutches. "Now, let's go and no buts about it or I'll kick it out there."

The genins glanced at each other before following their sensei outside and into the surrounding forest. After getting a good distance inbetween themselves and the town, Kakashi turned to his students.

"Alright then," he said, his eye curving upwards. "I assume that Sasuke and Naruto know both the wall-climbing and water-walking jutsu?"

"Hai," said both Sasuke and Naruto at the same time.

"And I'm sure you both know your chakra nature also?"

Sasuke and Naruto glanced at each other with a smirk before nodding their heads.

"And what may they be?" asked Kakashi.

"Wind," said Naruto with a smirk. "But I can use more then one element."

"Fire," said Sasuke, also with a smirk. "And I can also use more then one element."

"Okay, then I guess I have nothing to train you in," said Kakashi with a shrug. "I don't even know why you're genin. You should be jounin by now."

"We like to keep our strengths to ourselves," said Naruto.

"And we'll become jounin when we want to be," said Sasuke.

Sakura, who was sort of left out of the conversation, looked back and forth from her teammates to her sensei with confusion in her eyes.

"Sasuke-kun and Naruto are strong enough to be jounin?" she asked, making the guys remember about her.

"Yes, but let's keep that between us Sakura," said Kakashi. "You, on the other hand, need some more training to even be halfway as strong as them. But don't worry, I'll help you."

"And so will we," intervened Naruto, laying a hand on Sasuke's shoulder to prove his point, and Sasuke looked at him with a raised eyebrow.

"We will?" asked the Uchiha and Naruto nodded.

"We can't have her be weak forever," said Naruto, walking over to Sakura and circling her. "With the three of us training her, and with her brains, she'll be strong in no time."

"Are you really going to help me Naruto?" asked Sakura, looking at the blond with disbelief. "After all the mean things I've said about you?"

"That's all in the past," said Naruto, waving his hand around. "We're teammates now and we have to help each other through thick and thin, but we won't go easy on you."

"Speak for yourself," said Kakashi with a slight eye roll. "I'll train you in chakra control and ninjutsu."

"I'll train you in genjutsu," said Sasuke, crossing his arms.

"That leaves taijutsu for me," said Naruto with a smirk. "Maybe you should wield some sort of weapon also. Should I teach you kenjutsu or tessenjutsu?"

"I get kinda nervous around swords," said Sakura with a nervous look.

"Tessenjutsu it is."

"Alright, now that that's settled, time for your first lesson Sakura," said Kakashi as he walked over to a tree.

* * *

Sakura kneeled on the ground, sweat dripping down the side of her face and her whole body aching. It was past sunset now and she had been training the whole day with barely any breaks. Her first lesson was the wall-climbing jutsu with Kakashi. It was easy for her to master it because she had superb chakra control and was able to reach the top of the tree in under an hour. The water-walking jutsu on the other hand wasn't so easy for her since she had to constantly adjust the flow of chakra in her feet to the ever changing flow of the water. It took her two hours to get it right.

After her chakra control training, Sasuke then begin teaching her basic genjutsu. It was tough for the Uchiha to teach the pinkette for she was all over him like ants on sugar. But after another scary sermon from Naruto (in which he had to flash his eyes red just to get the "if you aren't killed by an enemy then I'll kill you myself" point across) Sakura finally focused on her training instead of Sasuke and was able to learn, but not yet master, the genjutsu Sasuke taught to her.

By the time Sakura finished her genjutsu training, which was halfway through the afternoon, it was time for her taijutsu training. She had to do hundreds of push-ups, sit-ups, chin-ups, squats, laps around the town, and more while wearing weights on her arms and legs. These were, as Naruto said, to give her more speed, stamina, and endurance. She hasn't learned any taijutsu forms yet for Naruto wants her to have more stamina first. The two spent the rest of the afternoon training, up until now.

_I can't believe that Naruto's such a tough teacher,_ thought Sakura as she struggled just to keep herself upright.

"I guess we can stop for today," said Naruto, looking up at the purple sky. "Let's go back to Tazuna's and get some dinner."

"Finally," said Sakura, heaving a sigh of relief. "Can I take off these weights now?"

"No."

"Eh? Why not?"

"This was how Sa - I mean, this was how I trained in my taijutsu. I wore weights twenty-four-seven until I forgot I even had them on. So you'll do the same. Never take them off for anything, even when you're taking a bath. And don't worry, they're water proof and they won't lace the water with lead or some other kind of metallic substance."

Sakura looked at Naruto with disbelief and stuck out her lower lip in a pout.

"But it totally clashes with my outfit." she whined as she followed Naruto back to the town.

"Either live with it or get a new outfit. That dress was getting old anyway."

"Shut up usuratonkachi."

"Make me fivehead."

At that, Sakura snapped and chased Naruto all the way back to Tazuna's house. Naruto burst through the door, followed by Sakura who had her fist raised, and Naruto hid behind Sasuke, using the Uchiha as a shield against the pink-haired fangirl.

"Hey, I don't appreciate you using me as a shield," said Sasuke as Sakura tried to get past him to (seemingly) get to Naruto by hugging the brunet.

"I don't need appreciation to do that," said Naruto with a smirk, amused at Sasuke attempts to push Sakura off of him.

"Okay, okay, enough of that," said Kakashi, beckoning the three to the table. "Let's eat and build up our strength shall we?"

The genins did what they were told and sat at the table to once again mooch off of Tsunami's delicious cooking. Even with the lack of food in the town, Tsunami was still able to make a delicious meal with the little food they had. They all sat around the table, eating and trying to strike up a conversation.

"Ano, Tazuna-san," said Sasuke and the old man looked up from his meal.

"What is it young man?" said Tazuna.

"I just wanted to ask if there were any ocean lilies around these parts."

"Ocean lilies? Well, there might be some if you circle the beach, I'm not sure. Why do you ask?"

"Uh, I just need some for something."

"Ah, I see."

The two returned to their meals after that. Sasuke glanced at Naruto who raised his eyebrows. Kakashi caught the gesture but didn't say anything about it.

_Now what are those two up to?_

"Ne ne, Sasuke-kun," said Sakura and her teammates mentally sighed, thinking _Here goes the fangirlism again_. "You and Naruto seem to be getting along really well. Why is that?"

Sasuke nearly choked on his mixed vegetables and Naruto nearly spat out the water he was drinking, but both were able to hold it back.

"Wh-What are you talking about?" asked Sasuke with a nervous smile.

"And you're more emotional then you used to be. What's up with you?"

Sasuke and Naruto glanced at each other nervously, talking with their eyes.

_What do I do? What do I do?_

_I don't know! Who am I, your mother?_

_Should we just tell them about our secret?_

_Maybe. . . I still don't trust her that much, and Kakashi also._

_But they _are_ our teammates. We should tell them the truth because sooner or later, they'll find out. And no one from Konoha is here to listen in on our conversation._

_. . . Tch. . . Fine, but no dropping our henges. We can save that until the right time comes._

After their short mental talk, the two boys nodded at each other and put their bowls down.

"We have a confession to make," said Naruto, bowing his head a little.

"OMG, I knew it! You guys are gay and are secretly dating!" cried Kakashi, pointing at the boys with an accusing finger and everyone in the room sweatdropped.

"Uh, no," said Sasuke, looking at his sensei like he was insane.

"Nice try though," said Naruto and Kakashi withdrew his finger with a nervous laugh, mentally kicking his own ass.

_How embarrassing,_ he thought.

"Anyway, back to the topic," pressed Naruto with another wary look at Kakashi. "To answer Sakura's question, Sasuke and I have known each other since we were seven, so we're really best friends. That's why we get along so well."

"No way," said Sakura, looking at her two teammates with disbelief. "But you guys always bicker and argue in the academy."

"That was just an act," said Sasuke. "We didn't want anyone to know that we're friends. It'll only spell trouble for Naruto."

"Why?"

This time, Kakashi was included in the boys glancing. They all knew Naruto's secret, but now wasn't the time to tell it to Sakura (or to Tazuna's family for that matter).

"I'll tell you when you're ready to take it," said Naruto, looking at the pinkette with serious eyes. "But you know that a majority of the village hates my guts, so if they see me hanging out with the last Uchiha in the village, they'll only hate my guts even more and they just might beat me to a pulp because of it."

"What? Why would the villagers beat you up?" asked Sakura.

"That's of no concern for now," said Sasuke. "But ever since I met Naruto, we have been secretly training with other with our sensei and that's how we got so powerful."

Silence. Then, "So that's why Kakashi-sensei said you guys should be jounin by now," said Sakura.

"Aa," said Naruto. "Do you believe us Sakura?"

"Well, it is hard to believe," said Sakura. "But you guys have no reason to lie, so I believe you."

"That's good," said Naruto, standing up. "So now that you know, please excuse me 'cuz I've got some things to do."

Naruto then left the house with everyone staring at his back. Sasuke sighed before returning to his meal.

"Sasuke, do you know where Naruto's going?" asked Kakashi.

"He's going to see our sensei," said Sasuke as he chewed on some vegetables.

"Ah, I thought so," said Kakashi with a nod.

"Eh? Sasuke-kun, the sensei who taught you to be strong is here too?" asked Sakura, her eyes lighting up.

"Aa, he's always with us. Wherever Naruto goes, he's always there." said Sasuke with a small smirk.

"Really? Do you think I can meet him?"

"Maybe, when you're ready."

"Ne, Sasuke-kun, when we get back to Konoha, would you like to go on a date wtih me?"

"No."

* * *

The night air was cool and it tingled Naruto's exposed skin as he walked through the dark forest. The wind rustled the leaves as it passed by and Naruto breathed in the fresh air. He always felt calm whenever he was in the forest. It was a peaceful place and it was perfect to being one with nature since you're surrounded by it. Whenever Naruto needed some alone time, he always walked through the forest to clear his mind.

Naruto sat down under a tree in a small clearing, his back resting on the trunk, and he closed his eyes, slowly descending into his mindscape.

"Don't you know what time it is?" asked Kyuubi when Naruto landed in the bijuu's room. Said bijuu was laying down on his circular bed, his kimono spread out around him elegantly, and he looked sleepy.

"After the five years I didn't acknowledge your existence, I would've thought that you've got enough sleep," said Naruto with a small smirk.

"Shut up gaki," said Kyuubi with a swift turn of his head. "If I'm sleepy then I sleep."

"Yeah, I'm pretty exhausted also," said Naruto and Kyuubi had to jump out of his bed to catch Naruto before the blond fell to the ground. Kyuubi sighed and carried Naruto to his bed where he laid Naruto's head on his lap and stroked the sun-kissed hair that adorned his head.

"You should've told your friends that the kunai that struck you was poisoned," said Kyuubi, continually stroking the blond head.

"I didn't want them to worry," said Naruto, closing his eyes and enjoying the sensation of the strokes. "Besides, you healed me pretty quickly."

"I may be able to heal you, but I can't cure you of the poison," said Kyuubi, looking down at Naruto with worried eyes. "You still have it coursing through your veins."

"It'll be fine," said Naruto, breathing deeply as he tried to lull himself to sleep. "As long as you're still inside of me, the poison won't affect me."

_**But I may not be inside of you for the rest of your life.**_

Naruto's breathing slowed and his body went limp, signaling that he fell asleep. Kyuubi kept on stroking the blond's head, addicted to feeling the soft strands of hair running through his fingers. Naruto was like his own kit and he would do anything to protect him. He had never grown so close to a human in his thousand years of life. It just goes to show you that love _does_ conquer all, no matter how cliched it sounds.

"But. . . will love be able to help Naruto in the battles to come?" Kyuubi asked himself, even though there was no answer.

* * *

It was a beautiful morning. The sun was shining, the birds were chirping, and a refreshing breeze blew every few minutes. In the forest, a person wearing a sleeveless pink and red kimono, could be seen picking herbs from the forest floor. Though at first glance this person looked like a girl, especially with a head of flowing black hair, once you get a closer look, it's obvious that he's a boy. Well, one would have to be convinced first.

A couple of birds flew overhead the boy. One bird flew down and landed on the his shoulder. The boy smiled at it, really making him look like a girl.

The bird flew away and the androgynous boy watched it land on a body that was slumped against a tree a little way away from him. The body was that of a young boy, not much older then twelve maybe, and he wore black and red clothes and had bright blond hair that seemed to glisten in the morning rays. The androgynous boy went to the blond boy and knelt down next to him. When he saw the hitai-ate around the blond boy's neck, his eyes went wide. Slowly, the androgynous boy raised a hand to the blond boy's neck, intending to strangle him, but in a flash, his hand was caught by another, stronger, hand.

"Who're you?" asked the blond boy, who suddenly awoke, with a coldness, narrowing his eyes at the androgynous boy who he was holding by the wrist.

"M-My name is Haku," said the androgynous boy, trying to pry his hand from the blond's grip but it was too strong. "I was going to wake you up. You could catch a cold sleeping on the ground."

The blond boy studied Haku for another moment, brown eyes meeting blue, then he gently released his hold on Haku's wrist and sighed, closing his eyes.

"Gomen nasai," he said, sitting upright in a more comfortable position. "I had somewhat of a rough week."

"It's okay," said Haku, smiling in spite of himself as he rubbed his wrist. "I understand."

There was a silence for a moment except for the chirping of the birds.

"What's your name?" asked Haku.

". . . Namikaze Naruto," said the blond.

"Are you a ninja?"

"Sort of obvious with the hitai-ate I have."

Another moment of silence in which Haku stared at Naruto who still had his eyes closed.

"Naruto-kun, what were you doing out here alone in the forest?" he asked.

Naruto opened his eyes and looked at Haku. Haku was expecting another cold stare, but instead he got a small smile from the younger boy.

"I was training," lied Naruto.

"It doesn't look like you just finished training," said Haku.

"I was training my mind. I must've fell asleep halfway."

"That's a strange way to train."

"Yeah well, a shinobi has got to train his mind as well as his body."

"A ninja's life is so complicated."

"That's an understatement."

Haku was now feeling a little awkward. There was something in Naruto's eyes that made him nervous. It was like Naruto _knew_ something about him.

"What are you doing here Haku?" asked Naruto, snapping Haku out of his thoughts.

"Oh, I'm here gathering medicinal herbs," said Haku, gesturing to his basket which was already full of leaves. "A precious friend of mine is ill and I'm going to make some medicine that'll speed up his healing."

"Ah. I'm not much of a medical ninja myself. Whenever I get wounded, someone else always heals me."

"It seems that you're precious to this person, that's why he always heals you."

"Heh, more like his life depends on mine, that's why he always heals me."

"I'm not sure what you mean by that."

"Oh, I didn't mean anything by it."

Naruto laughed nervously at this and Haku couldn't help but smile. Even though this child acted cold sometimes, he was still a child and thinks much like a child also.

_Maybe I was just imagining that feeling,_ thought Haku.

"Tell me Naruto-kun," said Haku, fingering a herb leaf. "Why do you train?"

"I train because I want to be stronger and to be recognized," said Naruto matter-of-factly.

"So, are you only training for yourself, or for someone else?"

"I don't exactly get what you mean."

"Well, I find that you'll get stronger if you're protecting someone who is precious to you."

Naruto thought for a moment, then smiled.

"I understand and I think you're absolutely right," he said.

Haku smiled, then he took hold of his basket and stood up.

"Well, I have to get going now," he said with one last smile. "You get stronger Naruto, and we'll meet again."

"Yeah, we will," said Naruto and he watched Haku walk away.

Haku walked down the trail, basket in hand and looking very calm indeed. Sasuke, who had left the house moments earlier to look for his friend, was coming down the trail in the opposite direction. He eyed Haku as he passed and stopped for a moment to watch the androgynous boy walk out of sight.

"Who was that girl?" asked Sasuke when he approached Naruto.

"He's a boy," said Naruto as he stood up and Sasuke raised his eyebrows, as if skeptical. "And his name's Haku. He's Zabuza's accomplice, the ANBU I told you about."

"What?! Then why didn't you take him out when you had the chance?"

"Because he wasn't my enemy. He was just an ordinary boy picking herbs on a beautiful day."

Sasuke stared at Naruto in disbelief. "You know, sometimes I have no idea what goes on through your mind," he said.

Naruto chuckled. "Kyuu tells me that too and he can hear my thoughts," he said, walking back towards the town. "Come on, I'm starving."

"And that was the reason why I came all the way out here, because breakfast was ready."

"Then what're we waiting for? Let's go!"

"Hey! Wait up!"

* * *

Days passed with no sign of Zabuza or Haku. The construction on the the bridge was nearing completion and the village was looking a bit more happy in some ways. Besides training Sakura to be stronger (because she is a useless banshee), Team 7 took turns in guarding Tazuna. On one particular day, nearly a week after arriving in the Wave Country, Kakashi decided that they would all go to the bridge and guard Tazuna, but unfortunately, Naruto wouldn't get out of bed.

"He has a slight fever," said Tsunami after feeling Naruto's slightly sweaty forehead. "I don't think he should be going out like this,"

"We'll just leave him then," said Kakashi. "Best for him to get some rest. Tsunami-san, please take care of him."

"Just leave him to me," said Tsunami with a kind smile.

Then Kakashi, Sasuke, Sakura and Tazuna headed off that morning, leaving Naruto behind. As they made their way to the bridge, our little blond hero shifted in his futon, pulling the covers over his head with a groan.

_I feel like crap._

**That's what happens when you don't ask for help. The poison's getting to you again and I'm the only thing standing in it's way. When you see that androgynous boy again, force him to give you the antidote because I can not cure you!**

_Please, no more lectures. I wanna sleep and my head is killing me._

**That's not the only thing killing you. . .**

* * *

"Ne Kakashi-sensei, why did you decide to bring all of us to guard Tazuna-san?" asked Sakura as the little group walked across the nearly completed bridge.

"Well, now that the bridge is nearly complete, I figured that it would be the perfect chance for Zabuza to make his appearance," said Kakashi, looking bored as usual (but who knows what really goes on under that mask?). "So it's better to be safe then sorry."

"If Zabuza does show today, then Naruto would miss a great fight," said Sasuke with a slight smirk.

They arrived at the end of the bridge, but the sight that met their eyes was horrible. All the workers who were devoted to building the bridge lay on the ground in a pool of their on blood, either dead or dying, though the former might've been more preferable. Tazuna was horror-struck and Sakura's face went a slight shade of green, looking like she would faint any second.

"Wha-What happened?" said Tazuna, though it came out as a mere whisper.

"It seems he came earlier then I expected," said Kakashi just as a thick fog rolled in.

"It's his **Kirigakure no Jutsu**," said Sakura, looking around but she couldn't see through the thickness of the fog.

"Sakura, Sasuke, formation," said Kakashi as he readied a kunai and the two genins took their places on either side of the bridge builder, also holding kunais. "Now. . . where are you Zabuza?"

* * *

"Inari! Inari would you come down and help me?" cried Tsunami from the kitchen.

"Coming Kachan!" cried Inari from upstairs and a moment later, he appeared in the kitchen, next to his mother.

The two went on with their daily chores, totally oblivious to the dangers that a beloved family member and their guests were facing. But they were going to face dangers of their own as two men holding katanas to their sides stood outside their door. A second later, the door was sliced into pieces as the younger of the two men swung his katana through them.

"Knock knock, can we come in?" said the taller, more muscular man wearing on eyepatch as he stepped into the house.

"Who are you?!" screamed Tsunami, pushing Inari behind her. "Get out of my house!"

"Ooh, I'm afraid we can't do that," said the younger bandit. "We were sent here to take some hostages and they just happened to be you two."

The larger man approached the mother and son pair, but Tsunami wouldn't give up without a fight. She grabbed a nearby frying pan and aimed it the the bandit's head, but the bandit easily caught it and slapped Tsunami's face with so much force that she fell to the floor.

"Okachan!" cried Inari, tears already appearing in his eyes.

"Run Inari!" cried Tsunami but Inari was too afraid to move.

"You little bitch," said the larger bandit as he stood over Tsunami. "I'm going to punish you for trying to get away."

Then the bandit crouched over Tsunami, hands staring to grope her. Inari screamed for his mother while Tsunami just screamed, both afraid of what was going to happen next. But then, their screaming was cut off by a loud shout.

"OI!"

All four people in the room looked around and saw a groggy Naruto, who was still in his pajamas, standing in the doorway that led to the room where he slept.

"What's with all the screaming?" he said, his voice slightly hoarse and his eyes half-closed. "How's a guy supposed to get some sleep around here?"

"Tch, it's just another gaki," said the larger bandit. "Take care of him."

"With pleasure," said his partner and he approached Naruto, unsheathing his katana.

"Naruto-niisan! Look out!" cried Inari as the bandit swung his katana towards Naruto, but the blond just held up a hand and caught the bandit's wrist in a tight grip.

"What the hell?" said the bandit, staring down at Naruto with wide eyes.

". . . Hell. . . That's right," said Naruto, grinning evilly and looking up at the bandit with a red glint in his eyes. "That's where you're going soon. Right into the center of it!"

Then Naruto tightened his hold on the bandit's wrist and twisted it around, making him drop his katana, until there was a loud crack. The bandit screamed in pain, and Naruto forced him to drop to his knees.

"Give up now and maybe your death won't be so painful," said the blond, killing intent leaking from his body like an open water faucet.

"F-Fuck you!" said the bandit and Naruto sighed.

"You asked for it," he said and with a flick of his hand, he sent the bandit flying out the open doorway. Naruto then turned to the larger bandit, his face emotionless but his eye gleaming red.

"Are you next?" he asked, his voice eeringly sinister and the bandit felt a pang of fear.

"Don't come near me!" he cried, grabbing Tsunami and holding his katana to her throat. "Or she'll die!"

"Wrong," said Naruto and he disappeared from sight only to reappear behind the bandit, who froze with fear as he felt the blade of a kunai against his throat. "You should've said 'Don't come near me or _I'll_ die'."

The bandit began to shake and he dropped his katana and let go of Tsunami, who crawled into Inari's arms. Mother and son watched as Naruto coaxed the bandit forward and out of the house.

"You shouldn't watch this," said Naruto to the two and they walked out of sight.

Tsunami and Inari waited. For a moment, there was only silence. Then they heard screams and two loud thuds. Tsunami and Inari clutched each other, waiting and keeping their eyes on the doorway, then Naruto appeared, but they were surprised to find that his pajama pants were splattered with blood.

"Sorry. I would've killed them right away, but I was worried that their blood might stain your floor," he said, stepping into the house while running a hand through his hair. "And don't worry, their bodies were taken care of and you won't know where I killed them if you feel that it would haunt you."

Tsunami and Inari just stared as Naruto walked up to them. The blond raised an eyebrow at them as they just sat there, staring.

"What the hell are you staring at me for?" he asked and the two jumped in surprised. "Don't just sit there, go out and get help. We might need all the help we can get, even if they're just bandits."

Tsunami and Inari nodded and shakily stood up. Inari glanced at the blood that soaked Naruto's pants and his face went pale.

"When you're a ninja, you have to live a life of killing," Naruto explained in a monotone voice as he walked back to his room and Inari decided right then and there that he would never even _think_ of becoming a ninja.

* * *

Meanwhile, Kakashi, Sakura, and Sasuke were about to fight themselves. They stood around the aged bridge builder, kunais at the ready and eyes scanning their surroundings. Sasuke had already activated his sharingan and he was waiting for Zabuza to move from wherever he was hiding from.

Suddenly, laughter rang in the air. It was Zabuza's unmistakable raspy laugh. It sent chills up Sasuke's spine and he started to shake.

"Sorry I'm late Kakashi," said Zabuza from somewhere in the dense fog. "Looks like you still have your gakis with you. And this one is shaking."

Then suddenly, the little group was surrounded by Zabuzas (all wearing shirts this time). But Sasuke just smirked and the Zabuza in front of him looked slightly surprised.

". . . I'm shaking. . . because I'm excited," said the Uchiha, his sharingan flashing red.

"Go get him, Sasuke," said Kakashi, his eye curving upwards.

Sasuke then disappeared from his spot. There was a whooshing sound and the Zabuza disappeared in a swirl of water just as Sasuke reappeared in his spot again.

"Oh, he knew those were mizu bunshins," said Zabuza and the fog dispersed just enough for the little group to see him (not shirtless) and his masked accomplice standing a few feet away from them. "And he has quite the speed too. Looks like you've got yourself a rival Haku."

". . . Looks like it," said the ANBU, Haku. "I would like to fight him, if that's alright with you Zabuza-san."

"Don't ask me for permission," said Zabuza. "All I want is Kakashi."

"Hai, then I will go now," said Haku and he took a step forward.

"Kakashi-sensei, I'll take on the ANBU," said Sasuke, stepping foward.

"Sure thing," said Kakashi.

"Kya! Sasuke-kun, you're so cool!" cried Sakura and Tazuna, Kakashi, and Sasuke sweatdropped.

_Pink-haired slut,_ they all thought.

"Well, shall we start then?" asked Haku.

"Ladies first," said Sasuke with a smirk.

Haku froze for a moment, his brain probably processing what Sasuke meant just then, then he took a step forward. Then another step, then he turned around and around and around. Haku was now spinning so fast that the others had a hard time keeping up with the spinning, but Sasuke didn't have a hard time. Haku spun towards the Uchiha and just as they were a foot apart, Sasuke stuck out his arm just in time to block a long and thick senbon with his own kunai.

"Is that your only speed?" asked Sasuke with a smirk.

"Oh, you are good," said Haku and he spun around again, another senbon in his other hand, but Sasuke blocked that one also. "You are very good indeed."

"Thanks for the compliment," said Sasuke and he proceeded to throw a flurry of kicks and punches at Haku with incredible speed.

The others watched in awe as Sasuke soon overpowered Haku and gave him a powerful kick in the face. Haku was thrown to the ground, but he quickly got up and used a senbon to block Sasuke's kunai.

"You're not so bad yourself," said Sasuke with another smirk.

"Indeed," said Haku. "But it seems I have two advantages here."

"Nani?" said Sasuke.

"Yes," said Haku. "One, is all the water spilt here, and two, is I can block you with only one hand, which means you can only defend yourself and that I can also do this."

Haku then started to make hand signs with his free hand, but everyone was shocked when they saw that he was only using one hand.

_He could use one-handed signs?!_ thought the ninjas except for Zabuza.

"**Hijutsu: Sensatsu Suishou!**" cried Haku.

The water around him and Sasuke started to stir, and then it floated up into the air around the pair before coming together and forming long, sharp needle-like icicles. Sasuke looked around, surprise showing on his face, and the needles rushed towards him at high speed. Fortunately, Sasuke was fast enough to jump away before they found their target. The needles struck the ground and returned back to its watery form around Haku's feet. Sasuke landed a few feet away from the masked shinobi and readied his kunai, his eyes narrowing.

_Didn't see that coming,_ he thought.

"You impress me Konoha shinobi," said Haku, taking a step forward and raising his hand. "But now's the time to stop playing games."

Haku's hand formed more one-handed signs and Sasuke gripped his kunai even tighter.

"**Hijutsu: Makyou Houshou!**" cried Haku.

The water around Sasuke churned and started to form multiple mirror-like blocks of ice. Sasuke was trapped in what seemed to be a house of mirrors, but he kept his eyes on Haku, waiting for his next move. Haku stepped into the closest mirror, sinking into the ice like it was water. His reflection was shown on the mirror and the other mirrors copied his image.

"Now, we can really start," said Haku, raising a hand holding a couple senbons. "And I will show you my true speed."

Sasuke readied himself. Haku threw the senbons with so much force that they were just blurs as they sped through the air. Sasuke tried his best to dodge them, but many had found their target, sinking their sharp points into Sasuke's flesh. Sasuke bit back his cries of pain and in a few seconds, he became a human pincushion. Sasuke dropped to his knees when the rain of senbons stopped and he looked around the many Hakus, trying to find which one was the real one.

"I'm surprised that you're still alive Konoha shinobi," said Haku, his soft voice ringing through the air.

"Just shut up and continue the fight bastard," said Sasuke, hoisting himself off the ground. "But if you don't wanna, then I will!" Sasuke made a series of hand signs and held two fingers in front of his mouth, leaning backwards to release the build up of chakra in his mouth. "**Katon: Housenka no Jutsu!**"

Multiple blasts of fire were shot from Sasuke mouth and each shot struck each mirror that surrounded Sasuke. But once the smoke cleared, Sasuke saw that the mirrors were still standing.

"So, katon jutsus won't work on your kind of ice," said Sasuke.

"Correct," said the Hakus. "My element manipulation is my kekkei genkai, so it is impossible to melt my ice with a mere katon jutsu nor is it possible for your sharingan to copy it."

Sasuke scowled. _Oh great, just great. What the hell am I going to do now?_

The Hakus held up more senbons and prepared to throw them.

"Say your last words. . . Konoha shinobi. . ." he said before throwing the senbons.

And from outside of the house of mirrors, the others heard Sasuke screams of pain.

* * *

When Sakura heard Sasuke screams, she felt fear flood her body and she started to shake.

"Sa-Sasuke-kun," she whispered and Tazuna looked down at the young genin, feeling pity towards her.

_Is this really the life of a ninja?_ he thought.

* * *

"Sasuke!" cried Kakashi when he heard the screams and he ran towards the fight, but unfortunately, Zabuza blocked his way..

"Sorry Kakashi, but your fight's with me," said the rogue nin, grasping the handle of his sword.

_Damn!_

"Fine Zabuza," said the jounin readying his kunai. "Let's finish this once and for all."

"Let's," repeated Zabuza, a gleam in his eyes.

* * *

Sasuke's screams stopped and Sakura felt like her heart skip a beat. Kakashi went to Sasuke, but was confronted by Zabuza. Naruto wasn't here to help her protect Tazunza nor was he here to help Sasuke and Kakashi fight. Sakura was alone, completely alone, and not only did she have to watch out for herself, but for Tazuna also. It was like what Naruto said when they had their first drill.

_"Do you think ths is a game?! You think that just because Sasuke's with you, you'll be alright? News flash pinky! He's not the one going to save you all the time. You have to save yourself! Just think about it for a moment with that large forehead of yours! In a battle, one wrong decision will lead to your death! In a battle, there is always a death! Sasuke won't be helping you all the time just because you say so! There are people out there stronger then Sasuke, stronger then me, and stronger then our sensei and those people just might kill us all if we had the misfortune of meeting them! So you better suck it up, stop thinking about Sasuke, start thinking about yourself, and become stronger, not to impress him, but to survive because in the state you're in now, your head would fly off your shoulders before you even enter a battlefield. Look at you, losing to such a simple genjutsu just because it looked like Sasuke. You don't deserve to be a kuniochi."_

No matter how harsh it was, it was the truth and the truth always hurt. The shocking truth that Sakura was weak and couldn't do a thing to help her team made Sakura afraid. She couldn't even defend herself. She knew she doesn't deseve to be a kunoichi.

_But no more._

Sakura clutched her kunai and narrowed her eyes at the mirror house.

_No more am I gonna stand by and be the weakling I am. Everyone is helping me to become stronger and I have to do my best to help them too. We have to have each other's backs because no one else will do it._

". . . Tazuna-san," said Sakura and Tazuna looked down at Sakura again.

"Yes?" he asked.

". . . I'm sorry. . . I have to leave you for a while. . ."

Tazuna closed his eyes in understanding. "Go do what you have to do," he said.

Sakura nodded, then ran towards the mirror house and jumped up.

"Sasuke-kun!" she cried, getting Sasuke's attention, and she threw the kunai towards him.

Sasuke was ready to grab the kunai as it flew towards him, but unfortunately, Haku leaned out of one of the mirrors to grab the kunai. Sakura landed on the ground and her eyes went wide with shock.

"Oh no! He grabbed it!" she said.

Sasuke looked up at Haku with one eye open. Haku flipped the kunai in his hand, almost pitying the boy in resorting to such meager methods, but in the blink of an eye, a shuriken found it's way around the mirror house and struck Haku right in the side of his face, causing the masked shinobi to fall out of the mirror and onto the ground.

"Nani?" said Sakura, her eyes going wide.

"Nani?" said Kakashi, his lone eye going wide.

"Who the hell did that?" said Zabuza, narrowing his eyes.

"I did," said a voice and out of the fog came a figure clothed in a red shirt and black shorts. He walked towards the small group, hands in pockets, and sighed indifferently as his blue eyes sweeped the scene.

"Naruto!" cried Sakura, both surprised and relieved.

"Naruto, thought you'd never come," said Kakashi, smiling a little under his mask.

"So, the third gaki's here as well," said Zabuza, his dark eyes scrunching together.

"Yup, I'm here Zabuza," said Naruto.

"I'm over here too," said another Naruto from in between Tazuna and Sakura (both of which who jumped in surprise).

"And here also," said a third Naruto from inside the mirror house, crouching down next to Sasuke.

"Hn, damn kage bunshins," mumbled Zabuza.

"Naruto, what took you so long?" asked Sasuke as Naruto helped him stand up.

"Well, in case you forgot, I'm not feeling very well today," said Naruto matter-of-factly. "And some bandits tried to kidnap Tsunami-san and Inari, but it's all taken care of."

"As always," smirked Sasuke.

"But, now that I've arrived, I see that you're getting your ass kicked," said Naruto, looking at Sasuke as if he was giving him a lecture. "What happened Sasuke? I feel like a giant hand will take those senbons out of you and start sewing or something."

"Shut up," said Sasuke with a smile, removing all of the senbons from his body. "This guy's something, and I can't defeat him on my own with the power I have now, so I was waiting for you to come and help me."

"Oh," said Naruto, realization hitting him like a ton of bricks. "I get what you're thinking. You want to use _that_ don't you?"

"Right, so let''s do this," said Sasuke, his body finally free of senbons and taking up a fighting stance.

"Yosh," said Naruto, grinning his familiar fox grin and doing that same fighting stance as Sasuke. He chuckled to himself as he watched Haku stand up, knowing that their next attack will blast Haku off of his feet.

_

* * *

Naruto is here and with Sasuke, I know they'll be able to defeat Haku,_ Kakashi thought as he carefully watched Zabuza's every move. _But now is not the time to think about their battle. Now, I have to think about my own little battle with Zabuza_.

Kakashi was feeling a little restless. He carefully looked over his shoulder at Naruto, who was only a kage bunshin, and he curved his eye upwards.

"I've got this Naruto," he said.

"I know," said the Naruto clone with a grin. "But I have to watch your fight because the original wants to see it."

"Ah," said Kakashi, giving him a nod and he turned back to Zabuza. "Well Zabuza, I don't really want to fight you, so I think I'll have to resort to a meager jutsu."

"Don't give me that crap Kakashi," said Zabuza. "The only thing you have to give me is all that you've got."

"But if I did that, then you'll be dead," said Kakashi, reaching into on of the pockets of his vest and taking out a scroll.

As quickly as he could, Kakashi used his kunai to cut open his palm and blood started to flow out of it. Then, just as quickly, Kakashi opened the scroll, spread some blood on it, twirled it around his head a bit, then tied it shut again.

"Let's see you dodge this Zabuza," he said to himself and he did a couple hand signs (with the scroll in his hands) before slamming the scroll into the concrete ground. "**Doton: Tsugai no Jutsu**!"

Seals left the ends of the scroll like it were alive and spread out across the ground, burying deep into the concrete like some concrete-eating worm.

"Enough of this! Let's fight!" cried Zabuza, swinging his sword around and rushing towards Kakashi, but suddenly, there was a rumbling sound from beneath his feet and in a flash, seven large dogs burst out from under him, latching their mouthful of fangs on any body part they could reach. Zabuza found himself immobolized (and having a hundred pound dog laying on his back) and he narrowed his eyes at Kakashi.

"Cheap trick Kakashi," he growled.

"Sorry," said Kakashi, his eye curving upwards. "But I'm lazy and I'm kinda excited about what Naruto and Sasuke will do to your subordinate."

Zabuza chuckled. "To tell you the truth. . . so am I," he said.

* * *

Haku stood up and faced the two genins. There was a small crack in his mask, but it wasn't important. Sasuke stood there, smirking and Naruto couldn't stop grinning.

"Just because there are now two of you doesn't mean you will win this battle," said Haku.

"Oh, he's underestimating us Naruto," said Sasuke, looking over at his friend.

"I don't like that one bit," said Naruto, his grin unfaltering.

"Let us continue," said Haku, stepping backwards to sink into the nearest mirror, but in the blink of an eye, the mirror shattered like glass. Haku gasped in surprise when he saw that Naruto was gone and he turned around to see him standing where the shattered mirror previously was.

"Well, that wasn't a very strong mirror was it?" asked Naruto, flexing his hand which sported long sharp claws.

"What. . . What are you?" said Haku, visibly taking a step backward when he saw Naruto's face.

Naruto grinned again, showing off his long fangs where his canines should be. Naruto's eyes were now a blood red color and his whisker marks on his cheeks were more defined and sinister-looking. And not only that, Haku could sense a dark aura surrounding the young genin.

"If you were there when I fought Zabuza," said Naruto, stepping towards Haku with his head bowed a little. "Then you would've heard it when I said. . . I'm a demon!"

Then suddenly, a huge wave of chakra burst out of Naruto and Haku was blown off his feet. The chakra swirled around the blond, red and sinister like his eyes, and all the mirrors surrounding the three shattered as easily as glass, reverting back to its original form as water. As soon as the mirrors disappeared, the wave of chakra did also and Naruto's red eyes returned to its normal cerulean color.

"All yours Sasuke," said Naruto, putting his hands in his pockets and Sasuke smirked.

"Thanks alot, you've made this easier for me," he said appearing in next to the fallen Haku. "I suggest for you not to struggle. It'll only hurt more."

Haku clentched his teeth as Sasuke removed his cracked mask. And of course, it was the same Haku the two boys saw in the forest a couple days earlier. The adrogynous, soft spoken boy with the kind brown eyes.

"I'm sorry I have to do this," said Sasuke, his sharingan eyes dark and solemn. "But you're a danger to every innocent person around here. I'll try not to put you through too much pain."

Sasuke activated his Mangekyou, his three tomoes merging together into an atom-like form with three hoops, and Haku looked into those two eyes, his own brown ones going wide.

And the fog was pierced with another scream of pain, this time, coming from Haku.

* * *

Zabuza gasped when he heard the scream. "Haku!" he said, sensing Haku's aura weakening.

"Looks like my subordinates defeated yours," said Kakashi straightening up and pocketing his kunai. "Give up Zabuza, it's over. You lost."

"I will only lose this battle when I lose my life!" cried Zabuza and he used all of his strength to throw off the ninja dogs, who disappeared in clouds of smoke. He grabbed his sword, swung it around his head and charged towards Kakashi.

Kakashi managed to dodge Zabuza's sword as it crashed down onto him. The silver-head jounin jumped backwards, getting a good distance away from the rogue ninja. As Zabuza struggled to get his sword out of the ground, Kakashi quickly made the ox, hare, and monkey signs, then molded chakra into his hand in a mass of electricity.

"**Raikiri**!" Kakashi cried as he rushed towards Zabuza.

"Bring it Kakashi!" cried Zabuza, finally freeing his sword, and he too charged.

It was the clash of the titans as the two jounins met, sword against jutsu, and there was a huge explosion. Sakura and Tazuna shielded their eyes and Naruto and Sasuke stared at the spot, sensing the large amount of chakra that Kakashi released. The fog started to disperse, the sun's finally shining through, and everyone strained their eyes, trying to see through the smoke that engulfed the two jounin.

And when the smoke cleared, the result was mildly surprising. Kakashi was bleeding heavily, Zabuza's sword digging deep into his shoulder, but Zabuza himself was in a more worst state. Kakashi's hand was clutching the fabric of his shirt that was over his heart and that part was spewing blood like no tomorrow, splashing onto the ground. Both jounin's faces were flecked with blood also, but Kakashi's eyes still had life in them while Zabuza's were slowly dulling, the life fading from his body.

"Sh. . . Shit. . ." rasped Zabuza, the bandages covering his face soaking up the blood that he coughed up. ". . . Seems like. . . I really have. . . lost. . ."

". . . You are a threat to the world Zabuza. . ." said Kakashi, feeling himself weaken also. ". . . But I was honored to fight you anyway. . ."

"Yeah. . . So was. . . I. . ." rasped Zabuza before falling forward and being caught by Naruto. Kakashi fell forward also, but he was caught by Sasuke.

"Rest Kakashi-sensei," said the Uchiha. "I'll fix you up soon."

Naruto was silent as he laid Zabuza down on the ground. He removed the bandages off of the rogue ninja's face and closed his unseeing eyes. The blond sighed, then looked over at Haku who was laying on the ground a few feet away, unconscious because of Sasuke's sharingan.

". . . If only you knew how precious you are to him," he said, feeling a little pity in his heart.

* * *

The next day, everything went back to normal. Or at least, as normal as normal could get in the Land of the Waves after the confrontation with Zabuza at the bridge. After Kakashi killed the rogue nin, Gato (the goon who hired Zabuza) came by with an army of bandits to try and kill Tazuna, since Zabuza had ignored his direct orders. Long story short, Gato made some long and boring speech on how Zabuza and Haku were worthless, that got Naruto mad and the blond summoned an army of kage bunshins which scared the crap out of the bandits, and there was a not-so-actiony fight in which the villagers came by to fight also, carrying weapons such as frying pans, pitchforks, and basically anything that could lay the hurt on a human being, and the bandits were so scared out of their wits that they just ran away. The only one left was Gato who was nearly killed by the villagers, but being the good-hearted boy he is, Naruto convinced the villagers to let Gato live so he could atone for his sins. Unfortunately, probably because of his own stupidity, Gato tripped on his own feet and fell over the edge of the bridge where he splashed into the river below and drowned because he didn't know how to swim.

Well, after a heated battle and a strange turn of events, Tazuna and his crew returned to completing the bridge and Team 7 stayed for a little while longer, partly because there still might be someone who wanted to kill Tazuna and partly because Kakashi was out once again along with a new member to heal, Haku.

"I hope Haku wakes up soon," mumbled Naruto, laying his head on the table with a groan (in Tazuna's household a few days after the battle).

"Why do you want him to wake up soon?" asked Sakura, sipping her tea.

"Because that day he nearly disabled my hand, he poisoned me also," answered Naruto oh so casually.

Sakura spit out her tea in surprised and Sasuke's mouth fell open.

"He WHAT?!" they cried.

"Don't worry about it guys," said Naruto with a lazy wave of his hand. "I can't die with poison alone, but it's really annoying and my body can't function properly with it flowing through my veins."

"Why didn't you tell us you were poisoned?!" cried Sakura.

"I didn't want you to worry," said Naruto, not looking at her.

"Worry?! Worry?! You could die right now!"

"I won't die."

"How could you be so sure?"

"Because."

"Because what?!"

"Just trust him Sakura," said Sasuke, understanding what Naruto was saying. "He'll be fine."

"But Sasuke-kun!"

Sasuke looked at Sakura, telling her to calm down and not let it bother her in a glare and Sakura gulped before sitting down. Even she had to admit that Sasuke's glares were scary.

The creak of a floorboard made everybody turn around and they saw Haku standing at the doorway to the kitchen, his flowing black hair gently framing his face and his gentle features looking shy and a bit confused.

"G-Gomen nasai," he said in his quiet voice. "I-I woke up and I don't know where I am."

"You're the village," said Naruto, standing up from his seat. "Come, sit with us."

Haku seemed relunctant, but he joined the three genins at the table, sitting down next to Naruto and in front of Sasuke. His brown eyes looked around the small kitchen, but it was only out of curiousity instead of nervousness.

"So, you hungry?" asked Naruto with a slight smile.

"Huh?" said Haku.

"I said, are you hungry?" repeated Naruto. "I can get you something to eat if you wanna."

"N-No, I'm fine," said Haku with a slight smile and there was silence again.

"Okay, what're we doing?" asked Sakura.

"What do you mean what're we doing?" asked Naruto.

"He tried to kill you and Sasuke, so why are we helping him?" asked Sakura, her eyes narrowing at Haku.

"Because, he's not our enemy right now," said Naruto and Sakura looked at him with confusion in her eyes. "Right now, he's a confused boy who has just woken up from the torture of a lifetime."

Again, Sakura looked confused, but Haku trembled and he held his arms in an attempt to stop it.

"Th. . . There was so much suffering. . ." he said, his eyes showing fear. "So much. . . blood and chaos and fear. . . I never thought that that would happen if Zabuza-san actually. . . went along with his plans."

"So, I'm guessing what Sasuke showed you made you have a change of heart," said Naruto, smiling at his friend who smiled back.

"My. . . My only dream was to fulfill Zabuza-san's dream," said Haku, lowering his head in shame. "But I guess, if that dream was fulfilled, then it would shatter other's dreams."

"I know you're not that kind of person to kill relentelessly Haku," said Naruto, putting a hand on Haku's shoulder. "And I'm sorry that Kakashi did what he had to do."

"What?" asked Haku, looking up at Naruto with confused eyes. "What did your sensei do?"

* * *

It was sunset. Four people stood on a hill that overlooked the village. On that hill, a small cross made out of wood and a large sword was stuck into the ground. The words Momochi Zabuza were etched on the wooden cross and Haku kneeled next to it, laying flowers on the foot of the cross with tears flowing out of his eyes.

"Goodbye. . . Zabuza-san," he said, smiling a little because he wasn't the sort of person who would stop smiling. "You were, and still are, precious to me."

Naruto stood behind Haku and he laid a hand on his shoulder. "I hope. . . you don't have a grudge against us or anything," he said.

"No," said Haku with a shake of his head. "I understand your motives and I'm not the kind of person who would hold a grudge anyway. If death was his fate, then I accept it."

Naruto nodded, then retracted his hand and returned it to his pocket.

"So, what're you going to do now?" he asked.

"I don't know," said Haku, wiping his eyes before standing up. "I've been with Zabuza-san most of my life and everything I did was for him. I never really did anything for myself."

"Then why don't you make a fresh start?' asked Sasuke with a slight smile. "You can come to Konoha if you want."

"EH?!" cried Sakura, looking at Sasuke as if he was crazy (first time for everything). "What're you thinking Sasuke-kun? You're bringing a criminal into Konoha?!"

"That's not a bad idea," said Naruto with a smirk.

"Not a bad idea?! Not a bad idea?!" repeated Sakura, looking around as if she was the only sane person there.

"I'm sorry, but maybe Konoha is too big for me," said Haku with a kind smile. "Maybe I should start small."

"Maybe you can here," said a voice and everyone turned around to see Kakashi walking up that path towards them, left arm in a sling and eye curved upwards.

"Kakashi-sensei," said he three genins.

"You're up early," said Sasuke.

"Well, I woke up and saw that you guys weren't around, so I thought I'd go looking for you and I found you guys here," explained Kakashi as he went to stand at Zabuza's grave. He lifted a hand in prayer for a moment before turning back to his students. "Anyway, Haku could start anew here, along with the village."

"But do you think it's okay to leave him here?" asked Sakura.

"You should know just by looking at him that Haku is a gentle person," said Naruto and Haku blushed a little.

"I trust him staying here," said Sasuke with a smirk. "I mean, since this village _is_ picking up the pieces. What better place to start?"

"But Haku is - " started Sakura but Kakashi cut her off.

"Haku is a boy who has lost his way and is looking for a fresh start," he said, his eye curving upwards at Haku. "As far as I can tell, Zabuza's subordinate was a masked shinobi and I don't see Haku wearing a mask."

Haku smiled at Kakashi and bowed at him.

"Arigato gozaimasu," he said, his eyes threatening to release tears again.

"Well, I guess you're right about that Kakashi-sensei," said Sakura, finally getting it (emphasis on finally). "I wonder what happened to that masked shinobi?"

"Who knows?" said Naruto, looking out over the hill where the sun was setting on the water. "But let's not let it bother us."

The little group all looked out over the hill, admiring the sunset and knowing that another chapter of their life is closing, and tomorrow, a new one will begin.

"Let's just. . . keep on moving forward," said Naruto and everyone silently agreed.

**

* * *

Emolette: Finally! I got this chapter done! After weeks and weeks of not updating!**

**Sasuke: Hey, the ending made me feel like I was watching an episode or something.**

**Emolette: Yeah, I'm kinda like that sometimes. Whenever I write, I fell like it'll be made into an episode or something. I even imagine it like I was acutally watching it on tv. Wierd huh?**

**Naruto: You said it. When have I been such a philospher?**

**Emolette: Ever since I began writing your life story -evil laugh-**

**Naruto: -sweatdrop-**

**Emolette: Oh, have you guys read my oneshots?**

**Sasuke: Yeah, and it was mostly SasuNaru.**

**Naruto: She made a Bevin one too.**

**Emolette: XD Kya! My Bevin fic was so fun to write! My first yaoi with a sex scene in it!**

**Sasuke: You've made other yaoi.**

**Emolette: But those were mostly kissing scenes. Bevin actually had a sex scene! -goes all fangirly-**

**Naruto: And for those who don't know, Bevin is a the yaoi pairing between Kevin Levin and Ben Tennyson of Ben 10.**

**Emolette: Alien Force! You forgot Alien Force because if you just say Ben 10, then it'll seem like I like the younger pairing when Ben was 10 and Kevin was 11! I only like their teen versions!**

**Sasuke: That's so wierd. Their names correspond to their aliases.**

**Naruto: Alia-what?**

**Sasuke: -sighs- You know, Ben Tennyson, Ben 10. Kevin Levin, Kevin 11. There was even their adult selves. Ben 10,000 and Kevin 11,000.**

**Naruto: -makes an 'o' with mouth- Oh. . .**

**Emolette: Enough talk! Must get onto writing chuunin exams! And I'm sorry that I'm so late! School and stuff, the usual.**

**Naruto: Not to mention a serious case of writer's block.**

**Emolette: Hey! I had a tough time trying to think up of the fight scenes and the dialogue! I actually had to watch the episodes again to get the dialogue, but since my family always hogs the tv, it took me weeks to actually do it! And I ended up writing my own dialogue anyway!**

**Sasuke: Why couldn't you just watch it on your laptop?**

**Emolette: -pouts very childishly- The damn dvd won't work on my laptop because it was so scratchy. . .**

**Sasuke: But it worked on your dvd player?**

**Emolette: Ironic ne?**

**Naruto: -nods head- Very.**

**Emolette: Anyway, thank you for reading^^! And stay tuned for the next chappie. I promise, it won't take long at all! -waves goodbye-**


	12. Announcement and Reunion

**Emolette: -singing- Mi jika ni arumono, tsune ni ki wo tsuketeinai to, amari ni chikasugite, miusinatteshimaisou!**

**Naruto: -claps- Hey Emo-chan, I didn't know you could sing Japanese.**

**Emolette: Well duh! I'm an otaku and an otaku should be able to sing along to their favorite show, no matter how many theme songs it has. My second favorite anime is Bleach but it only has 8 theme songs while Naruto has. . . -counts with fingers-. . . 11! Yay! Hey guys, what're your favorite theme songs?**

**Naruto: Haruka Kanata^^!**

**Sasuke: Distance.**

**Emolette: Psh. Those two are basically the same. Haruka kanata means far-off distance and they both talk about keeping your friends close. Just goes to show you how close these two are^^ -raises eyebrows twice-**

**Sasuke & Naruto: -glances at each other, then looks away with a slight blush on their cheeks-**

**Emolette: Ooh, look who're shy! -nudges Sasuke-**

**Sasuke: -glare-**

**Emolette: -sweatdrops and steps away from the Uchiha- Ahehe. . . ahem. . .**

**Naruto: -quickly butts in awkward moment- Fumi komu ze akuseru!**

**Emolette: Oh! -mentally thanks Naruto- Kake hiki wa nai sa -**

**Naruto & Emolette: -grabs microphone and dances on top of table- Sou dayo! Yoru wo nukeru!**

**Emolette: -bangs head- Neji komu sa saigo ni**

**Naruto: -punches air with enthusiasm- Sashi hiki zero sa -**

**Naruto & Emolette: -punches air together- Sou dayo! Hibi wo kezuru!**

**Naruto: -air guitars- Dan dan dan, kokoro wo sotto!**

**Emolette: -air guitars- Dan dan dan, hiraite gyutto!**

**Naruto & Emolette: -still air guitaring- Dan dan dan, hiki yosetara! Da na na na na na na na!**

**Emolette: -more air guitar- Dan dan dan, todoku yo kitto!**

**Naruto: -second to last air guitar- Dan dan dan, tsutau yo motto sa! Aa!**

**Naruto & Emolette: -last air guitar- Da. . . na. . . na. . . na. . . Da na na. . . na. . . na. . . na. . .**

**Naruto: Iki isoide! Shiboritotte!**

**Emolette: Motsureru ashi, dake do mae yori, zutto sou, tooku he!**

**Naruto: Ubaitotte! Tsukandatte!**

**Emolette: Kimi ja nai nara! Ima wa nainosa!**

**Naruto & Emolette: Dakara haruka kanata! . . . -collapses and ROFLOL-**

**Sasuke: -sweatdrop- Those two really are crazy. . .**

**Naruto: -nudges Emolette in the ribs- Ne, Emo-chan, I think Sasuke needs a little motivation.**

**Emolette: -winks at Naruto- I've got an idea. . . In the meantime, enjoy the next chappie and I hope you enjoyed our little duet^^!**

**Naruto: Dattebayo!**

**

* * *

Chapter Eleven**

**" Announcement and Reunion "**

* * *

Team 7's mission to the Wave Country ended a month ago, but nothing else exciting happened to the four-man cell since. They bade their goodbyes to the villagers (and Haku) the day after the bridge was finished (the previous night being a celebration). Haku plans to establish a ninja force, training possible ninjas-to-be to protect the Wave Country, and a homeless shelter, where the homeless can find shelter (duh). He had high hopes on his new goals and so did Naruto. When Team 7 returned home from the mission, they reported to the Hokage about Tazuna's deception, but being the kind man that he is, Sandaime understood Tazuna's decision and only gave the country a debt. Though now that the bridge has been finished, the Wave Country will be able able to pay it off in no time. In the meantime, inbetween D-rank missions and training, Naruto and Sasuke still had to make Sakura stronger. And since she is a brainiac (with that large forehead of hers), Sakura was able to excel in her training, but not like in the academy. It was probably because Sasuke had something to do with it.

"Sakura! Slice that tree in half!" cried Naruto to the pink-headed banshee named after a flower.

"Shannaro!" cried Sakura, running to the tree with her steel fan in her hand and she easily sliced through the tree trunk.

"Yosh, very good Sakura," said Naruto, nodding at his teammate.

"Yeah! I am so good!" cried Sakura, punching the air in victory. _Shannaro!_

Naruto smiled and shook his head at the girl he feigned love to, then walked over to the tree where Sasuke was sitting under and sat down next to him.

"She's gotten alot better," said the Uchiha, handing the blond a bottle of water.

"Tell me about it," said Naruto, chugging down the water. "It's only been a month. I thought it would've taken longer, but I guess she just wanted to show you how good she was."

"Tch, please don't tease me," said Sasuke with an annoyed expression and Naruto chuckled.

"Sorry," said the blond, taking another swig of water.

It was another peaceful day of training. Sakura was now a whiz at tessenjutsu, now sporting a pair of custom-made steel fans fit for her (designed by Kyuubi on Naruto's request) and she has learned some medical jutsus, not only from Sasuke (who had some knowledge on poisons and pressure points) but from the medic-nins at the Konoha Hospital as well. Not only that, her month of training with the guys had her taijutsu, ninjutsu, and genjutsu increase dramatically. She was now one tough kunoichi, not the useless banshee she used to be. Though, she still was crazy for Sasuke and was probably only doing this to impress him anyway (which didn't work one bit).

The quiet of the forest where the three genins were training was disturbed by a loud poof and Kakashi appeared in a cloud of smoke.

"Yo," he said, saluting his team.

"Do we have another lame-ass mission Kakashi-sensei?" Naruto deadpanned and the jounin sweatdropped.

"You can be so cold Naruto," said Kakashi as he approached his subordinates.

"Save the compliments and tell us what're you doing here," said the blond and Kakashi had another sweatdrop.

_I don't think I could ever get used to this Naruto,_ he thought.

"Well, anyway," he said in reality. "I've got some good news for you all."

"You're being replaced?" asked Naruto.

"Sakura's being replaced?" asked Sasuke.

"Naruto's being replaced?" asked Sakura.

"Uh, no, no and no," said Kakashi, having his third sweatdrop of the day. "Nobody is being replaced (unfortunately). I'm just here to tell you that the Chuunin Selection Exams are coming up and I have recommended the three of you to participate in it."

"The Chuunin Selection Exams?" said the three genins in unison.

"Yup, or the Chuunin Exams for short," Kakashi said with a nod.

"Isn't it a bit too early for a team of genin, who're fresh from the academy, to be participating in the Chuunin Exams?" asked Sakura.

"Nonsense," said Kakashi with wave of his hand. "The boys are far more experienced for their age and you Sakura are advancing so quickly. It would've been stupid of me not to recommend you."

The three genins looked at each other, but the boy's faces were expressionless while Sakura looked a bit worried.

"You have a choice if you want to participate or not," said Kakashi, taking out three slips of paper and handing it to the genins. "If you decide to participate, be at Classroom 301 in the Academy before 3 pm on the 5th. You have time to think about, but think about it carefully. The Chuunin Exams are not for the faint of heart."

Kakashi then disappeared in another cloud of smoke. The three genins stood there for a moment, staring at the paper in their hands, then at their teammates, before silently walking away towards the village.

* * *

"The Chuunin Selection Exams huh?" said Naruto as he and Sasuke walked through the village (Sakura went straight home). "It's hard to say no to this opportunity."

"I thought we'd be needing to wait another couple years to become chuunin," said Sasuke, reading his application paper. "But now here it is, in our hands."

"Gonna join?"

"Hell yeah. Like you said, it's hard to say no. There'll be tons of tough opponents there."

"And they're all ninjas, not like those weak-ass bandits we keep on fighting."

"Besides, Kakashi said that it wasn't for the faint of heart."

"And we're sure as hell _not_ faint-hearted."

The two friends chuckled at that, then they stopped in their tracks when they heard running feet coming towards their direction. They stepped to the side, without even looking behind them, and they were able to avoid getting run over by three kids, who were all wearing goggles.

"Ha! You can't catch me, the great Konohamaru!" cried the smallest one with spikey brown hair.

"Wait up Konohamaru-kun! Don't run so fast!" cried the little girl with her orange hair in pigtails, stumbling as she ran after her friend.

"Please wait," mumbled the tallest one wearing glasses and who was in real need of a tissue.

The small boy, Konohamaru, just laughed as he ran from his friends, only to crash into a black-clad person who had just rounded the corner.

"Ittai!" cried Konohamaru, falling backwards onto his backside.

"Watch where you're going, gaki!" cried the black-clad teen who had a Suna hitai-ate around his head.

"Why don't _you_ watch where you're going batman freak!" cried Konohamaru from the ground and a visible tick appeared on the teen's forehead.

"What did you call me gaki?" growled the teen, grabbing Konohamaru roughly on his collar and lifting him from the ground.

"Hey! Let go of me freak!" cried the kid, struggling in the teen's grasp.

Meanwhile, Konohamaru's friends watched in horror but Naruto and Sasuke were indifferent to the boy, only interested in the one who was holding him.

"Hey, isn't that - ?" asked Sasuke, pointing to the black-clad teen.

"I think it is," said Naruto, squinting his eyes a little. "But I'm not so sure because of all that purple make-up on his face."

The two friends approached the scene, but ignored Konohamaru's cried for help, thier attention on the black-clad teen.

"Hey, your name Kankuro?" asked Naruto, pretending that the struggling boy in the teen's hand wasn't there.

"Yeah," said the teen, Kankuro, and he narrowed his eyes at the two friends. "How do you know my name?"

Naruto and Sasuke both laughed.

"Hey Sasuke, Kankuro's as dense as ever," said Naruto with a chuckle.

"You said it," answered Sasuke, chuckling also. "He doesn't even recognize us."

"I do," said another voice and a girl with blond hair tied in four pigtails appeared from behind Kankuro.

"Temari," said Naruto with a grin. "It's been a long time."

"Yes it has," said the new girl, Temari, with a smile. "You two have grown, Naruto, Sasuke."

Kankuro's jaw dropped, and so did his hold on Konohamaru's shirt (therefore making the boy fall on his butt for the second time), and he stared at the younger shinobi.

"Temari!" he cried, pointing at the two boys. "You're telling me that these two are Naruto and Sasuke?!"

"Well duh!" said Temari. "Can't you tell? It's like night and day."

Kankuro squinted his eyes at the two boys, and made an 'o' with his mouth.

"They are Naruto and Sasuke," he said as if he was the first to know and Temari sighed.

"Is Gaara with you guys?" asked Naruto and Temari nodded.

"He was with us a little while ago, but I dunno where he went," she said, looking around.

". . . You two look stronger," said Kankuro with a grin and Temari rolled her eyes.

"Maybe we are stronger," said Naruto, returning the grin. "But have you gotten stronger Kankuro? I seem to remember a time when we could easily knock you out."

"Hey! I was weak before, but now I'm stronger and I could easily kick your asses now!"

"Oh, you say that but why don't you show it to us?"

"I will! In the Chuunin Exams!"

"Huh? You're participating in the Chuunin Exams also?"

"Yup! The Sabaku Siblings are participating in the Chuunin Exams, so you better watch your back! Wait, you're partiicipating in the exams also?"

"Duh!" said Naruto and Sasuke in unison and they looked at each other with a smirk.

"Ne Naruto," said Sasuke. "Is it me, or did these exams just got a little more interesting?"

"Nope, it certainly has gotten more interesting," said Naruto.

Meanwhile, while those two were talking, Konohamaru got up, kicked Kankuro in the shin, and ran away with his friends.

"Damn gaki," mumbled Kankuro as he rubbed his shin.

"Don't think of doing anything to him," said Naruto. "He's Sandaime's grandson, so if anything happens to him because of you, then Suna is going to be in big trouble."

Kankuro's face paled a bit, but it was difficult to tell under all that make up.

"Where is your brother?" asked Sasuke, getting a little bit impatient.

"He'll be here in a bit," said Temari, looking around again. "Oh, there he is."

Temari pointed to a nearby tree and everyone saw a redhead hanging upside down from a branch. Said redhead disappeared in a swirl of sand when he was noticed and reappeared in the middle of the small group.

"Just found you guys," he said, looking at Temari. "Who're they?" he added, gesturing his head towards the blond and brunet.

"Even you can't recognize them Gaara?" asked Temari, raising her eyebrows in disbelief.

"Don't tell me you're starting to act like your brother, Gaara," said Naruto with a smirk.

"Now that spells trouble," said Sasuke, also smirking.

Gaara turned to stare at them for a moment, then he pointed a finger at them.

"Uzumaki Naruto? Uchiha Sasuke?" he said, his eyes wide (he might've been raising his eyebrows, but he didn't have any).

"Bingo," said Naruto with a fox grin. "But my last name's Namikaze now."

"And are we really that unrecognizable?" asked Sasuke with a slight pout.

"Well, you do look different then from the last time I saw you guys," said Gaara.

"And you don't really look different at all," said Naruto and Gaara slightly pouted.

"C'mon," said Sasuke with a laugh and he patted Gaara on the shoulder. "Let's go hang out for a while. We have some catching up to do."

"Okay," said Gaara and he and Naruto followed Sasuke. "I'll see you guys later, Nesan, Nisan."

"See'ya," said Temari and Kankuro in unison and they watched Gaara walk away with his friends.

"They're so good-looking now," said Temari with a slight giggle. "And not to mention how mature they are."

"What does that make me? Roadkill?" said Kankuro, sticking out his lower lip.

"With that outfit, you might as well be," said Temari, walking away from her younger brother and Kankuro did a classic depresssed scene.

**

* * *

::: Furashubakku no Jutsu!!! :::**

_The moon shone brightly over the village of Suna on a cold night. The sandy streets were dark with only a few pinpricks of light shining through the windows and no one walked around in the darkness. . . no one except the lone cloaked figure that made no sound as he trudged on. The figure was hidden underneath the folds of his black cloak, the hem flappping slightly around his ankles as he hurried through the streets. He seemed to be running from something, but no one was following him. Or maybe, he was just hurrying somewhere, though where would a stranger in Suna go?_

_The stranger stopped in his tracks and he turned his head side-to-side, as if looking for something. He turned his head upwards, towards the rooftops of the village, and he jumped onto it with skill. He jumped through the village for while, until he saw two figures on another rooftop. Actually, one figure was laying on the ground while the other smaller one was crouching over it, looking like he was crying._

_The stranger jumped onto that rooftop and had a closer look at the scene. A little redheaded boy was crying over the body of a Suna ninja with sandy blond hair and who looked like he had just died. When the stranger appeared near the two, the redheaded boy looked up and immediately narrowed his eyes in a glare._

_"Who're you?" he asked with a slight menace._

_"I'm a traveler from Konoha," said the stranger, keeping his distance from the boy. "Are you Sabaku no Gaara?"_

_"So what if I am?" asked Gaara, anger clearly on his face. "I just killed my ojisan. Are you going to report me or something?"_

_"I could care less about what you just did," said the stranger and that made Gaara change his expression from angry to confused. "I'm here for you."_

_"Are you. . . here to kidnap me?" asked Gaara, a little fearful._

_The stranger chuckled. "No way! I'm not stupid enough to try and kidnap you." he said with a slight shrug. "Well, maybe if it was my mission to kidnap I'll do it, but in this case, I have no mission like that. I'm here because I want to be here."_

_Gaara stared at the cloaked stranger. "Who are you and why are you here?" he asked._

_"My name is Uzumaki Naruto," said the stranger. "And like I said, I'm here for you."_

_"Show your face."_

_The stranger shrugged to himself and pulled down his hood without hesitation. He was a blond with spikey hair, matching blue eyes, and had three whisker-like marks on both his cheeks._

_"This isn't my real age actually," said Naruto, running a hand through his hair. "I'm really the same age as you, but if anyone knew that I don't know what they'll do."_

_"You're six like me?" asked Gaara, obviously surprised._

_"Yup, and I'm just like you too," said Naruto, grinning a fox grin._

_"What do you mean?"_

_"I mean. . . I have a demon, like you."_

_Gaara's eyes went wide and he stared at the disguised Naruto, who just smiled._

_"You. . . have a demon like me?" asked the redhead._

_"Yeah," said the blond. "I'm here to talk to you about that, but not here. We have to go somewhere private."_

_Gaara looked at his dead ojisan, who was already going cold. Naruto approached Gaara and crouched down next to him._

_"I know you don't want to leave him, but I really need to talk to you now, before I leave," he said. "Do you know any jutsus?"_

_"Not really," said Gaara with a shake of his head. "Unless you count the one I used against my ojisan."_

_"Of course," said Naruto with a sigh. Then he put the first two fingers of both his hands in a cross and a kage bunshin appeared beside him._

_"You know what to do," said Naruto to his bunshin and the bunshin nodded while putting his fingers together._

_"Henge!" said the bunshin and he transformed into an exact replica of Gaara._

_"You're six years old and you know two jutsus?" asked Gaara, a little awed._

_"I know a few more then that," said Naruto, standing up. "The kage bunshin will watch over your ojisan and when he dispells himself, I'll know when ninjas have found him. Can you come with me now?"_

_Gaara looked up at the seemingly older man, thought about it for a bit, then nodded. Naruto smiled down at Gaara, then sweeped him up in his arms and jumped away._

_**:::**_

_Once they were alone in an abandoned house (typical), Naruto let go of his henge and showed Gaara how young he really was._

_"Wow, you really weren't kidding about being six," said Gaara._

_"Yeah, well, like I said, if someone knew I was here. . ." Naruto left the sentence hanging._

_"So, what did you want to talk about?" asked Gaara._

_"Nothing that important," said Naruto, a small smile on his face. "I just wanted to meet someone like me and I wanted you to know that you're not alone."_

_"What do you mean?"_

_"You and I aren't the only ones with demons inside of us."_

_"How can you be so sure?"_

_"Oh, my demon told me."_

_"You can communicate with your demon?"_

_"Yeah. You could too if you just give it a try. Maybe Shukaku'll be merciful on you, since his life depends on yours anyway."_

_"So, how many people like us are out there?"_

_"There might only be nine people like us, people who have bijuus sealed inside of them. They call us jinchuurikis. And since there are nine bijuus, ranging from one tail, which is Shukaku, to nine-tails, which is Kyuubi, that makes sense to why there are nine jinchuurikis."_

_"Have you met the other jinchuurikis?"_

_"No, though I very much want to. Maybe when I'm older and can travel. It was hard sneaking out of Konoha and I came to Suna because it was closer and because you're the only jinchuuriki Kyuubi told me about."_

_"You have Kyuubi?"_

_"Yeah, lucky me, I have the King of Demons, the most powerful one out there with unlimited chakra and who nearly destroyed my home when I was just born."_

_Gaara stared at Naruto._

_"Sorry," said the blond with a nervous laugh._

_"No, I get what you mean," said Gaara. "At least you know why Kyuubi was sealed inside of you. I still don't know why."_

_"You'll know soon enough. Sure we have demons inside of us, but that doesn't make us monsters. We were born human like everyone else, right?"_

_"Yeah, right."_

_The two smiled at each other, then Naruto jerked his head upwards, as if he just realized something._

_"Some ninjas already found your uncle," explained Naruto as he looked back at Gaara. "You should go and face them."_

_Gaara's eyes saddened. "O-Okay," he said._

_"Why're you sad?" asked Naruto._

_"Well. . . because I'm leaving the first friend I've ever had."_

_"Really? Well, in a way, you're my first friend too."_

_The two smiled at each other again._

_"Will I see you again Naruto?" asked Gaara._

_"Of course, I promise," said Naruto. "And don't let anyone get to you because I never let anyone get to me."_

_"Right. I'll remember that and I'll be waiting for you."_

_Gaara walked away, but he looked back at Naruto, who smiled._

_"Be careful and know that you're not alone," said the blond._

_Gaara returned the smile, then walked out of the abandoned house. Naruto waited until he couldn't hear the boy's footsteps anymore so that he could henge again._

_**That was much better then I expected.**_

_"Yeah," said an older-looking Naruto. "I hope he doesn't go bad. I know some people go bad with great power."_

_**He won't go bad. He has you as a friend.**_

_Naruto smiled, then he left the abandoned house and headed straight for the Suna gate._

_**::: Four Years Later :::**_

_"Wow, so this is Suna?" asked Sasuke as he and Naruto stepped into the desert village, bodies cloaked and faces older by use of henges._

_"Yeah, beautiful isn't it?" said Naruto, looking out over the village. "It's been four years since I came here last. My last visit wasn't all that special, but it makes me nostalgic all the same."_

_"You said you have a friend here."_

_"Yeah, the jinchuuriki of the Ichibi. I wonder how he is now."_

_"Why don't we go find him? He could be at their academy."_

_"Why not? Let's go!"_

_Naruto then ran towards the village, leaving Sasuke at his wake._

_"Oi! Matteyo Naruto!" cried Sasuke and he ran after his energetic friend._

_After a few minutes or so running through the village streets, Sasuke was able to make Naruto wait long enough so that he could get directions to the academy. Following the directions they recieved, they relinquished their henges in the cover of an alley and headed towards the Suna Ninja Academy._

_Their academy was much like the one in Konoha. There was barely anything different, it even had the loner sitting on the swings and enviously watching the other kids who played around in the courtyard, much like the way Naruto acted at the Konoha Academy._

_"That him?" asked Sasuke, nodding his head towards the loner._

_"Yup," said Naruto with a smile and he approached the loner, followed by Sasuke. "Hey, why're you sitting here all alone Gaara?"_

_Gaara looked up at Naruto, narrowed his eyes in slight confusion, then widened them in realization._

_"Naruto?" he asked, standing up in front of the blond. "Is that really you?"_

_"Told you I'd come back," said Naruto and he gave Gaara hug, which the latter returned. "It's so good to see you."_

_"It's great to see you!" cried Gaara, a big smile on his face. "I was so lonely with you gone, but I never gave up hope that you'll come back."_

_"Well, here I am, and you won't be so lonely for the next few days," said Naruto with a smile. "Oh, and this is my best friend, Uchiha Sasuke."_

_Gaara looked at Sasuke, noticing him for the first time, and Sasuke gave him a friendly smile._

_"Hi," said Sasuke, holding out a hand._

_Gaara stared warily at the hand, then looked at Naruto._

_"Don't worry, he knows who we are and he's a good guy," said the blond, clapping Sasuke on the back. "He always has my back and I always have his."_

_Gaara glanced down at the offered hand, then up at Sasuke's face before he grasped the hand in a friendly handshake._

_"Nice to meet you Sasuke-kun," said Gaara with a smile._

_"Please, just Sasuke," said Sasuke, returning the smile._

_"You've made a new friend Gaara," said Naruto, smiling at the two._

_"Thank you Naruto," said Gaara. "You wanna come to my house for some lunch?"_

_"That'll be great! We haven't had a decent meal in three days." said Sasuke with relief._

_"Hey, we had dinner last night," said Naruto with a slight pout._

_"Please, rattle snake is not my idea of a decent meal," said Sasuke with a slight eye roll._

_"You only hate it because you burnt your meat," said Naruto, his pout getting more childish._

_"Let's just go," said Sasuke with a sigh._

_Gaaara looked back and forth from the two friends as they talked and he laughed when they were done._

_"You guys really are best friends," said the redheaded jinchuuriki. "I envy that."_

_"Well, one can have more than one best friend," said Naruto, wrapping an arm around Gaara's neck._

_"And maybe we can be that more," said Sasuke, putting a hand on Gaara's shoulder._

_Gaara looked from Sasuke, to Naruto, to Sasuke again, then he smiled and nodded._

_"Yeah," he said, his smile growing into a grin. "From now on, you're my best friends!"_

**::: Kai!!! :::**

* * *

Naruto laughed.

"Oh kami, I don't know why I'm embarrassed by that night," he said, putting his hands to his face as he sat back in his chair.

"Why're you embarrassed?" asked Gaara with a slight chuckle. "If it wasn't for you, I so would've gone bad."

"Yeah, yeah, kudos for me, but I'm still embarrassed," said Naruto as he waved his hand around.

"You guys are so weird," said Sasuke with a chuckle and a shake of his head.

"And where have you been living, under a rock?"

The three genins laughed. They were sitting in a restaurant, having lunch and catching up with each other. Those in the restaurant would glance at them out of the corners of their eyes if they laughed too loud or would raise their voices. The three looked like long time friends, but what disturbed the villagers was that the redhead, Gaara, was from Suna and they would wonder how the demon brat and the last Uchiha got to be so chummy with an enemy.

The genins finished their chatting and left the restaurant (to the relief of the villagers) to go walk around town. They chatted as they walked and laughed some more until they found themselves just outside the Hokage's Tower.

"Wow, it's like the Kazekage's Tower," said Gaara, looking up at tall building.

"They all look the same," said Naruto.

"Pretty boring too," said Sasuke.

". . . Listen, guys," said Gaara, suddenly sounding solemn. "Nesan, Nisan, and I aren't just here for the Chuunin Exams."

"What do you mean Gaara?" asked Naruto.

"Well. . . I think it'll be better if you guys come with me to the see the Hokage," said the redhead.

"Okay, then let's go," said Sasuke but Gaara blocked his way into the building.

"Not now," Gaara half hissed. "Later on tonight. This is an important decision I'm making and I can't risk getting caught by my peers and superiors."

"Alright Gaara," said Naruto, holding his hands up to show no offense. "Later tonight then."

"Good, and make sure you're not followed," said Gaara.

"That's not a problem," said Sasuke, smirking over at Naruto who smirked back. "You might not even recognize us."

"What do you mean?" asked Gaara, looking slightly confused.

"You'll see," said Naruto with a chuckle. "Anyway, you should get going. Your siblings might be waiting for you."

"Yeah, okay," said Gaara with a smile. "Don't forget about tonight."

"We won't," said Sasuke and he and Naruto watched Gaara walk off.

"Is it me, or is Gaara hiding something?" asked Sasuke.

"It's not you," said Naruto, agreeing that Gaara was definitely hiding something.

**

* * *

Emolette: Okay, I admit it, that sucked.**

**Sasuke: You got that right. Gaara tries to eat me at the Chuunin Exams and now you made me be best friends with him!**

**Emolette: ^^But it's cuuuuuuute!!!**

**Sasuke: Cute my ass. . .**

**Naruto: Emo-chan! You said you had an idea!**

**Emolette: Oh right! C'mon Naruto!**

**(Emolette then grabs Naruto and starts whispering in his ear)**

**Naruto: . . . -slightly evil grin-. . . Let's do it!**

**Sasuke: -suddenly wary- What did you tell Naruto Emolette?**

**Emolette: -holds up microphone- Hey, you finally called me by my name Sasu-kun^^!**

**Sasuke: -narrows eyes-**

**Naruto: This is because you didn't sing earlier!**

**Sasuke: -feels a little afraid- What're you gonna do?**

**Naruto: 1, 2, 3 4!**

**Emolette: -sings- You are my friend! Ah, ano hi no yume!**

**Naruto: Ima demo mada wasuretenain deshou!**

**Emolette: You are my dream! Ah, hajimatte bakka -**

**Naruto & Emolette: Kimi no one longest way!**

**(Emolette then holds up the mic to Sasuke's lips)**

**Sasuke: -struck by realization- Oh no! I am not singing!**

**Naruto: I'll tell your fangirls your home phone number.**

**Emolette: And I'll give each of them a key to your house.**

**Sasuke: -shivers and grabs mic to sing- Whoa! Ima tabidatsu yo!**

**Naruto & Emolette: Success^^!**

**Emolette: Everyday, kono saki mo shining day!**

**Naruto: Kawarazu singing! Hikaru asa no smile!**

**Sasuke: -eye twitch- Kore de miosame no funny days!**

**Emolette, Naruto & Sasuke: Tabidatsu future! Mezashite go far! Kokoro no dream of!**

**Sasuke: -more eye twitching- I'll go the distance! Mihatenu sora wo blue!**

**Naruto: Norinkonda star ship!**

**Emolette: Kore ga saigo no forever trip!**

**Sasuke: -eye stops twitching- You are my friend! Ah, ano hi no yume!**

**Emolette: Ima demo mada, wasuretenain deshou!**

**Naruto: You are my dream! Ah, hajiamatta bakka kimi no one longest way!**

**Emolette: Whoa, ima tabidatsu yo!**

**Sasuke: Thank you my friend! Ah, ano hi no koto!**

**Emolette: Ima demo mada oboeteru kara!**

**Naruto: You are my dream!**

**Naruto, Emolette, & Sasuke: Ah mou nidoto sou modorenai days!**

**Sasuke: I'll go the distance! -music fades away-**

**Naruto & Emolette: -claps for Sasuke- Woot! Go Sasuke!**

**Naruto: Who knew the teme could sing so well^^!**

**Emolette: And who knew Naruto could actually speak with correct grammar^^!**

**Naruto & Sasuke: Eh?**

**Emolette: I was expecting Naruto to say "sing so good" but he said "sing so well" which is correct grammar.**

**Naruto: Oh^^**

**Sasuke: Never let me sing again. . .**

**Emolette: We'll let the readers decide that, to make this fic a little more fun^^. Readers, just tell me if you want me, Naru-kun or Sassy-kun to sing again and you can request a song too!**

**Sasuke: WTF?! What's with the Sassy-kun all of a sudden?**

**Emolette: What? I've always called you Sassy-kun because you are kinda sassy. . . It just didn't cross my mind to call you that until now. . .**

**Sasuke: Oh kami save me!**

**Emolette: Sassy-kun, no begging to kami because you're an atheist.**

**Sasuke: -broods-**

**Naruto: He returns to brooding!**

**Emolette: Let him brood. Here, have some ramen Naru-kun.**

**Naruto: RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!**

**Emolette: -one gigantic sweatdrop- Wow, he's been deprived of ramen for so long because he's been here in this fic. . . Anyway, thank you for reading^^ and I might not be able to update for like a week or so because my exams are coming up. . . Wish me luck! -waves goodbye-**


	13. The Chuunin Exams Start!

**Emolette: Gung Hei Fat Choi!!! Happy New Year!!!**

**(tons of fireworks goes off)**

**Naruto & Sasuke: -blows loud new year's horn-**

**Emolette: Sorry for the long wait. You know, holidays and no internet access and I had to do some major research. On a lighter note though, I hope '09 will be better then '08.**

**Sasuke: I seriously doubt that.**

**Naruto: Why can't you be more optimistic Sasuke?**

**Sasuke: Because I'm emo, that's why.**

**Emolette: Didn't know you were the stereotype Sassy-kun.**

**Sasuke: -angry vein- Would you not call me sassy?!**

**Emolette: ^^ No promises.**

**Naruto: Ne Emo-chan, did you get any reviews over the holidays?**

**Emolette: Tons, though there was this one person who seemed slightly confused at my writing style and he/she kept on saying that I have alot of contradictions.**

**Sasuke: Sounds likes he's/she's flaming you.**

**Emolette: No, he/she likes my story. Said it makes one want to go to the next chapter (insert smiley face) but he/she is still confused about the minute details.**

**Naruto: Like what?**

**Emolette: Like alot of stuff. First off, these little conversations with my favorite yaoi couple -**

**Naruto & Sasuke: We are not a couple!**

**Emolette: - may be annoying, but they're fun and that's what counts. Secondly, I have no recollection of Kyuu-chan telling the seme and uke -**

**Naruto & Sasuke: Will you shut up about that?!**

**Emolette: - to hide their true power. I believe it was their own decisions to hide it and now they're not-so-slowly revealing themselves because they want to. Several people have found them suspicious like Iruka, Sarutobi, and Kakashi, but the two has entrusted their secret to them and also, I don't think I have the patience to put in innocent people finding out their secret because I am following the storyline for most of this fic. Third, about Sasuke and Sakura. Sasuke is still annoyed by the pink-haired banshee -**

**Sasuke: -snort- You got that right.**

**Emolette: - but there are some things that are more important then wanting to rip her preppy, pink, five-not-foreheaded head off. Besides, Sakura's working hard on her traininng so trying to seduce Sasuke is temporarily pushed to the back of her mind. Fourth, I'll try to put in more NaruSasu -**

**Naruto & Sasuke: Hey!**

**Emolette: -angry vein- Would you guys stop interrupting me?! It's really annoying!!!**

**Naruto & Sasuke: -zips mouths-**

**Emolette: Thank you! I was about to say NaruSasu **_**friendship**_** moments, but since battles are coming up, I find that a bit difficult. Fifth, Sakura said "How can he win? He's the dead last in our class!" because she didn't know that Naruto and Sasuke tied for top. How the blond tied with the brunet is totally up to your imagination because I think that detail is totally minor. And I think the last little detail is that Naruto can kill whenever he wants if he's in the mood and that mostly happens when he's in a battle that is either boring or exciting. The battle with the guard was boring so he killed him for some kicks and he did try to kill Zabuza but was foiled by Haku and if he thinks an enemy is worthless, like Mizuki, he will just knock him out (but since Iruka was there, I doubt he wanted to kill in front of his father figure). I'm happy with my reviews, I welcome all questions, and I will use flames for burning my enemies alive.**

**Naruto: You don't have any enemies.**

**Emolette: Tell that to the fluffy white bunnies, cute little squirrels, and singing blue birds that run around my room trying to clean it and paint it pink! I will burn them alive!!! -maniacal laughter-**

**Naruto & Sasuke: -sweatdrop-**

**Emolette: Ahem, anyway, chapter twelve starts now! Enjoy^^**

**

* * *

Chapter Twelve**

**" The Chuunin Exams Start! "**

* * *

Today was the day. The day the Chuunin Exams will start. Naruto didn't feel nervous at all as he dressed that morning, covering the tattoos on his arms with bandages and pulling on his everyday clothes. He packed all the weapons that he could carry and reviewed all the strategies that he thought up of the previous night. He knew he was ready and he knew he was going to pass the exams and become a chuunin, no matter how easy or difficult it may be. He was just one step closer to his goal of becoming Hokage.

Since it was still early, Naruto headed over to the Uchiha Estate to see what Sasuke was doing. He found Sasuke doing something that might shock everyone who knew him as the almighty last Uchiha; slouched on the couch, watching tv. Naruto couldn't stop his eye from twitching as Sasuke stared at the tv screen, flipping channels every five seconds.

"Sasuke, what the hell are you doing?" Naruto asked his best friend.

"What does it look like I'm doing?" said Sasuke, settling to watch cartoons. "I'm watching tv of course."

"But shouldn't we be training or something for the exams?"

"I don't really feel like it. Besides, we gotta have some off time too. It's not healthy if all we do is train."

Naruto nodded, admitting that Sasuke had a point there, so he took a seat next to his best friend and joined him in the ritual of watching animated characters running around and going through their misadventures. They were like that for the rest of the morning and most of the afternoon until Sasuke checked the clock and saw that it was an half an hour until three.

The two boys hurried to the Ninja Academy and found Sakura waiting for them outside the school.

"And I thought Kakashi-sensei was always late," said Sakura, crossing her arms and narrowing her eyes.

"Gomen gomen," said Naruto with a wave of his hand. "We were busy. . . training."

Sasuke smirked at Naruto's lie and Sakura gave them a slightly suspicious look.

"Well then, let's go already," said Sakura. "I bet everyone's already there."

"Hai hai," said Naruto and he and Sasuke followed Sakura inside the building.

Once the three got to the second floor, they found a large crowd gathered around the outside of a classroom that had the sign "301" on it. There was also a commotion in which some guys standing outside the door picked a fight with a Konoha genin who wore horrible green spandex and had bushy eyebrows.

"And I thought my orange jumpsuit was an eyesore," Naruto said and Sasuke and Sakura nodded their agreement.

"Let's go," said Sasuke, walking away. "We're wasting our time here."

As Sasuke walked away from the crowd, he accidentally bumped into an older genin with long brown hair and lavender eyes. They locked eyes for a moment before Sasuke bowed his head in apology.

"Sorry, didn't see you there," said the Uchiha before walking off again.

"Where are you and your team going?" asked the older genin, making Sasuke stop in his tracks.

Sasuke raised an eyebrow. "You mean you haven't noticed?" he asked.

"Noticed what?" asked the older genin.

"We're only on the second floor," said Sasuke, raising his voice a little so that everyone around them could hear. "This isn't room 301, it's room 201."

Everyone looked around at the sign that hung above the door and saw that the number three on it changed into a two. The two boys who were guarding the door smirked at that.

"Well, looks like you're a smart one," said the one with spikey hair.

"Not me, her," said Sasuke, nodding his head towards Sakura. "She's more perceptive when it comes to genjutsu."

Sakura looked at Sasuke, a bit surprised, then she smiled, mentally thanking him, before smirking to make it seem like she did know.

"What's your name rookie?" asked the older genin.

". . . That's for you to find out, senpai," said Sasuke with a smirk and he and Team 7 walked off.

The older genin glared at Sasuke's retreating back. Naruto looked over his shoulder at the genin and they locked eyes. The blond made his eyes flash red for a spilt second and a smirked appeared on his face as he saw the older genin's eyes go wide with shock.

_That never gets old._

**Stop showing off Kit.**

_I'm not showing off. I'm just showing him who he's dealing with._

**Yeah, that's showing off.**

_..._

* * *

Team 7 headed for the third floor and walked down a long hallway where they found Kakashi waiting next to a pair of doors.

"Oh, so Sakura's here too," said Kakashi once they were close enough.

"What does that mean?" asked Sakura with a slight pout.

"Well, the rules of the Chuunin Exams state that only three-man teams can participate," said Kakashi matter-of-factly.

"Then why did you say that we could participate or not?" asked Naruto, feeling that familiar annoyance with his sensei.

"I wanted to see if you really wanted to participate," said Kakashi with a shrug. "If I said that only three-man teams can enter, then you and Sasuke might have to force Sakura into entering. I wanted all of you to come here on your own free will."

Sakura stared at Kakashi, then she scoffed. "Even if you did say that only three-man teams can enter, I'll enter anyway because I want to become a chuunin," she said with a smirk. "I know I'm strong enough now. This is my chance to get even stronger."

"Good to hear that," said Kakashi, his eye curving upwards. "Now then, you may enter the room."

Kakashi stepped aside, letting the genins grasp the doorknobs.

"And good luck," he said as the genins stepped inside the room. "I doubt you're going to need it, but just a precaution," he added as the doors closed.

* * *

Inside the room, Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura marveled at how many genins were inside, young and old. There were many different genins and more than half were from different villages. Both Naruto and Sasuke smirked, feeling the tension and slight nervousness some of the genins were emitting.

"This is so going to be fun," said Naruto.

Suddenly, a squeal made the three jump.

"Sasuke-kun!" cried a high-pitched voice and Sasuke was glomped by a purple mesh of clothes.

"Great, it's the copy cat," Sasuke mumbled, seeing that Ino was still wearing armbands that were similar to the ones he used to wear.

"Ino!" Sakura cried, her eyes burning fire. "Get away from Sasuke-kun!"

"Oh, so you're here too forehead girl," said Ino, glancing at Sakura. "Why don't you make me?" she added, sticking out her tongue and pulling down her lower eyelid.

Sakura growled and tried to pry Ino off of Sasuke, but that wasn't really necessary for Sasuke easily threw the two off of him and stood next to Naruto, as if the blond was his shield.

"I didn't know they were going to participate also," Sasuke whispered into Naruto's ear.

"I have a feeling they're not the only one," Naruto whispered back.

"Man, this is so troublesome," said a drawling voice and Shikamaru appeared with Chouji beside him.

"Knew it," Naruto said a smirk.

"Ha! So everyone's here eh?" said another voice, a bit more gruff this time, and there was Kiba with Shino and Hinata behind him.

"Invasion of the rookies," said Sasuke, also smirking.

"I never thought that all of us would be here," said Sakura, her scuffle with Ino coming to a stop and looking around at the nine of them.

"This'll be real fun," said Kiba and he eyed Naruto and Sasuke with a grin on his face. "I hope I'll be able to fight the both of you."

"Same goes here." said Sasuke.

"Ditto," said Naruto.

The tension was rising but so was the excitement. Naruto could feel his heart pounding against his chest and his muscles were twitching, itching to get moving. Suddenly, there was a loud poof and a tall man in a black coat appeared at the front of the room surrounded by chuunin.

"Well, looks like we have many participants this year," said the man as all the genins turned their attention towards him. "If you're all done messing around, you will all draw numbers and find your seat that has the same number. Do it quickly so we can start the first part of the examinations."

And the first part of the examinations happened to be a written exam. Naruto felt like killing the instructor. He prepared himself for battles, not test papers!

"Naruto-kun," said a soft voice and the blond looked to his right to see Hinata smiling at him.

"Hinata-chan!" Naruto said, grinning at her. "How are you?"

"I'm doing fine Naruto-kun," said the Hyuuga. "How about you?"

"It's been an eventful few months since we last saw each other," Naruto said with a shrug. "But I'm doing great. How's your training going?"

"It's great!" said Hinata, suddenly excited. "I did what you suggested and my sensei really helped me out alot and I learned alot of medical jutsus that'll help my team!"

"I'm happy for you," Naruto said with a chuckle. "And it looks like you overcame your shyness."

At that, Hinata blushed a deep red and began fiddling with her fingers.

"At least a little," Naruto said with a small sweatdrop.

"All right, listen up!" said the instructor, making everyone look at him again. "First off, my name is Morino Ibiki and I will be your instructor for the first part of the Chuunin Exams. As you can see, the first part is a written examination. Now, I am going to tell you the rules." Ibiki then picked up a piece of chalk and started writing on the chalkboard. "You each get ten points. For each wrong answer on your exam, we will minus two points from your score, so that means if you get five wrong answers, then you fail. Total scores are calculated once the written exam is over. And also, if one of you gets a zero, then your whole team is disqualified. Is that clear?"

Ibiki tapped the chalkboard with his chalk to emphasize each rule. Surprised faces were scattered here and there at the last rule, which wasn't a real surprise.

_Wow, that'll put alot of stress on everybody,_ Naruto thought, resting his chin in his hands._ If they get a zero, then their whole team is disqualified, but if they answer five questions wrong, they'll get disqualified also._

"The chuunins here will be watching your every move," said Ibiki, a smirk on his face because of all the tension. "If you get caught cheating, two points will be taken off your score. Once you get caught cheating five times, your whole team is disqualified." More shocked faces, which only made Ibiki's smirk grow. "You have forty-five minutes to answer your test. The tenth question will be given after those minutes are over. You may begin answering your test. . . Now!"

Once Ibiki finished speaking, everyone picked up their pencils and began reading their tests.

_These are impossible for genins to answer,_ Naruto thought as he scanned his sheet. _Not even I can answer them. Maybe Sakura can, but Sasuke and I aren't really that studious._

Naruto glanced at the genins around him. He could see that they were having trouble answering the questions and they had that nervous look in their eyes, shifting them from side to side.

_So, is this test just to mess with our heads? The only way we can answer the questions is to cheat, but we mustn't get caught. Is that the real test?_

Naruto glanced around again, making sure that no eyes were on him, then under the desk, he formed a hand sign.

_Well, if there's any time for me to use that jutsu, then I guess it's now,_ he thought with a smirk.

**

* * *

::: Furashubakku no Jutsu!!! :::**

_"Sugoi," Naruto said, poring over the scroll that his father gave him (indirectly of course). "I never knew that Okasan came from such a powerful clan. And they were all wiped out because of their kekkei genkai."_

_He and Sasuke were hanging out in the treehouse as usual. Sasuke sat in an armchair near the sofa, where Naruto was sitting, reading a scroll of his own. He looked up at the blond with a slight scowl on his face when he heard the last sentence._

_"What kind of idiot would order an entire clan to be killed?" the brunet asked and Naruto looked at him with a raised eyebrow. "Oh, right, those kinds of idiots," Sasuke mumbled as memories of the massacre rushed though his mind._

_"The people of the Whirlpool Country were afraid of the Uzumaki clan because of what their kekkei genkai can do," Naruto continued, his eyes going back to his scroll. "I'd be afraid too if I knew someone would be able to enter my mind at will or levitate objects with their mind or see my dreams and my deepest desires."_

_"Assuming that you were an ordinary, everyday villager?" said Sasuke._

_"Assuming that I was an ordinary, everyday villager," Naruto repeated with a smirk. "But take a look at how many jutsus they had. They're all so amazing. It's like the Yamanaka clan jutsus. Not really useful in battle, but amazing nonetheless."_

_Naruto's cerulean eyes shone as he read the words on the scroll. He wasn't sure if he would be able to awaken his kekkei genkai any time soon, but the jutsus his mother provided for him will definately be useful._

_And the thought of him armed with the Uzumaki clan's kekkei genkai made his skin crawl._

**::: Kai!!! :::**

* * *

Making sure no one was looking, Naruto formed more hand signs under the desk and completed his jutsu.

"**Sansaku Seishou no Jutsu**," he whispered to himself.

And in a surge of chakra, barely felt by anyone, Naruto's spirit left his body.

"Whoa," Naruto said, looking down at his body which sat rigid and frozen in place, cerulean eyes dull and unseeing, but thankfully covered by his bangs so no one would notice. "So, this is what it feels like to have an out of body experience huh?"

Naruto looked around. No one even glanced at him, meaning he was invisible to everyone since he was just a spirit after all. The blond grinned to himself, his mischievious nature kicking in, but he held it back, knowing that he had a task at hand.

"Time to get the answers to my questions," the blond said to himself as he stood over another genin who was furiously writing down the answers.

_So, this test is all about getting information without getting caught huh?_ Sasuke thought, leaning his head on the back of his hand. _That seems easy enough._

Sasuke flickered his eyes forward and saw Naruto a couple rows in front of him. The blond was unmoving and he seemed like he was frozen in place. Sasuke narrowed his eyes in suspicion, wondering what the blond was up to.

_Maybe he used that jutsu,_ the brunet thought as he straightened. _Might as well start on my own exam._

Sasuke closed his eyes and focused his chakra before opening them again, irises now blood red and having three tomoes decorated around his pupils. He chose his victim, an older genin in front of him who was writing like no tomorrow, and he smirked as he copied the older genin's pencil movement.

_This is a cinch._

Meanwhile, the rest of the Rookie 9 went on doing their respective gimmicks in getting the information they wanted. Kiba had Akamaru look at other's test papers from atop his head. Shino used his bugs (who knew having bugs would be so useful?). Hinata had her byakugan. Ino did the **Shintenshin no Jutsu** on Sakura and memorized her answers so she could write it down for Shikamaru and Chouji. Even the Sand Siblings had their own way of collecting information. Gaara made a third eye out of sand, an eye that was connected to his optical nerves in his own left eye, and he used that to see his victim's answers while said victim was distracted. And Kankuro and Temari helped each other out, Kankuro pretending to go to the bathroom and returning to the room right before Ibiki was about to announce the tenth question. While passing by Temari, Kankuro dropped a tiny scroll on her desk as inconspicuously as he could before sitting back down on his own seat.

After Kankuro took his seat, Ibiki asked everyone if they wanted to continue or not because if they answer the tenth question wrong, they will fail the exams along with their teammates, no matter what their score on their test is, and they will forever be genins. That really mounted the stress and tension on everyone's shoulders and many genins quit, leaving with their teammates. The numbers of genins drastically dropped, since many other teams were disqualified for getting caught cheating,

_I wonder what the tenth question will be,_ Naruto thought, his spirit having returned to his body minutes ago once he got all the answers.

"Now, it's time for me to reveal the tenth question," Ibiki said, his eyes glinting with mischief. "And the tenth question is... there is no question! Everyone here all passed the first part of the exams!"

Jaws dropped. Eyes went wide. Killing intentions mounted. Naruto definately felt like lashing out at the scarred instructor. Questions were thrown all around and Ibiki answered them calmly.

It turns out, both Naruto and Sasuke were right. The written exam was all about testing their information gathering skills. If anyone was dumb enough to get caught while cheating or resorted to meager means of cheating (like looking a their seatmate's paper), then they didn't deserve to be chuunin. All the rules were set up to increase the tension and stress on their shoulders. Their team's expectations were nerve-racking and that added to the stress. The tenth question was to test if they were willing to go forward despite knowing that aside from their careers as ninja, their lives were also on the line. Only those who were willing to put their lives on the line to finish the mission were worthy of becoming chuunin. It was genius thinking and also incredibly annoying.

As everyone finally understood what Ibiki was saying and began relishing their first victory, a dark mass crashed through the window and a kunoichi appeared, using kunais to pin up a banner in front of Ibiki.

"Now is not the time to be happy!" she cried. "I am Mitarashi Anko, your instructor for the second part of the Chuunin Exams!" Anko then raised her fist in the air. "Let's start the second part of the exams! Now everyone, follow me!"

There was a moment of silence in which everyone just stared at Anko.

"Psst, wrong timing," Ibiki said, peeking out from behind the banner and Anko gave him an annoyed look.

"78 people," Anko said, disregarding her slight mistake. "Ibiki, you left 26 teams?"

"There are many talented people this year," Ibiki said, standing next to Anko.

"Heh, seems like the first part of the exams was too easy," Anko said with a smirk. "Well, I'll just cut the number in half in the second part of the exams."

Everyone seemed to tense up at that statement.

"Listen up!" Anko said, getting the genin's attention again. "The second part of the exam will take place in a specific location! Ask your jounin senseis about the time and place and I'll see you there!"

Anko's smirk was so not reassuring.

* * *

"I knew we'd be able to pass Sasuke-kun!" Ino cried as she tried to glomp Sasuke but the brunet sensed her coming and stepped to the side, therefore making the blond crash into a certain pinkette.

"Get off me Ino you pig!" Sakura cried from the ground since Ino was pinning her.

"You got in the way forehead girl!" Ino cried back.

The girls started to rumble again, but nobody really paid them any mind.

It was sunset and the Rookie 9 had just passed the first part of the Chuunin Exams a couple hours ago. Said rookies were hanging out with each other, determined not to let the pressure of the exams get in the way of their fun. They had just a barbeque restaurant, a treat to them by their senseis, and they were now headed home.

"Well, see'ya guys tomorrow I guess," Shikamaru said, walking off with Chouji and Ino (who was pried off of Sakura).

"We won't lose to the likes of you guys!" Kiba commented with a grin, walking away with Shino and Hinata by his side.

"Have a good night, Naruto-kun," Hinata said to Naruto with a bow before she left with her team.

Naruto waved at the Hyuuga and once the other two teams were out of sight, he turned to Sasuke and Sakura.

"Well, the first part of the exam was surprising," he said with a small smile.

"You said it," Sasuke said with an annoyed look on his face. "I thought we were going to fight, but we just had to rack our brains to gather information. That was a hell of a disappointment."

"Do you guys really want to fight that much?" Sakura asked.

"Yes," said the two boys.

Sakura gave them a slightly worried look, but didn't say anything else about it.

"Well, we're off Sakura," Naruto said, turning away and walking off. "Get some sleep tonight, you're going to need it."

Sasuke followed Naruto's wake and Sakura stared at the two until they disappeared around the corner.

* * *

The night was cold but calm with a slight wind that blew every few minutes, rustling the leaves in the trees. In one of the training grounds, Naruto and Sasuke lay on the ground, making a horizontal line with their bodies and their heads touching as they stared up at the starry sky. They were silent, swimming in their own thoughts, and they barely cared that it was late.

"Naruto," Sasuke said and Naruto blinked his eyes.

"Sasuke," Naruto said, assuring that he was listening.

"The hands are still connected," Sasuke said and Naruto searched the skies and found Gemini, the hands above their heads still holding each other.

Naruto smiled, seeing the cluster of stars, and he reached over his head, extending his two fingers.

"Yeah, they are," he said and he felt Sasuke lock fingers with him.

Silence again, but only for a moment.

"You know, we'll eventually have to fight each other in the exams," Sasuke said.

"I know," Naruto said and he was surprised to feel Sasuke tighten his grip on his fingers. Naruto smiled a little at that. "You better go at me with everything you got, or that'll just be insulting."

"But you know everything about me," Sasuke said. "You know every jutsu I've learned and you've probably figured out a weakness that I don't even know. Plus, you have Kyuu-san. I can't compete with that."

Naruto sighed. "I won't lie to you Sasuke," he said. "I do know every jutsu you've learned and you know every jutsu I've learned, but I assure you, I have never observed you enough to find your weakness. And Kyuubi? I don't wanna use him against you. I want to defeat you with my own hands, without Kyuubi's help."

Another moment of silence.

"Well, that certainly is reassuring," Sasuke with with a tiny hint of sarcasm.

Naruto couldn't help but laugh and Sasuke joined in on his laughter.

And the two friends laughed into the night, as if they weren't about to face a huge challenge the next day. As if they were. . . normal.

**

* * *

Emolette: God, that sucked.**

**Naruto: That's what you get for not updating for weeks.**

**Emolette: -pouts- Don't blame me! I'm trying to make this entertaining to my readers, so I can't update every week!**

**Sasuke: Why not?**

**Emolette: I've got school of course. Do you know how tough college is?!**

**Naruto & Sasuke: No.**

**Emolette: -sweatdrop- Right, you guys are ninjas. . . But give me Orochimaru any day, as long as I don't have to study these useless subjects.**

**Sasuke: I'm guessing that the next chapter will take another few weeks to finish?**

**Emolette: Yes, maybe around the end of February.**

**Naruto: That's disappointing.**

**Emolette: Yes well, the end of the semester is coming and I have to study harder to get my poor grades up. Also, there's a field trip and I can not miss that opportunity for extra credit.**

**Sasuke: Aren't you also writing a couple more fics?**

**Emolette: Yes, I've got a couple fics in writing for Valentines Day and I really hope I'll be able to finish them by that time.**

**Naruto: I'm guessing that it's all yaoi.**

**Emolette: ^^ You guessed right. I've got some Bleach pairings, a Bevin pairing, and of course, a SasuNaru pairing!**

**Naruto & Sasuke: -sweatdrop-**

**Emolette: My Bevin fics are really popular. I made three of them and they all received good reviews.**

**Sasuke: Good for you.**

**Emolette: Ah yes, before I forget, here are some birthday shoutouts! Happy birthday Gai (Jan. 1), Hyuuga Hiashi and Hizashi (Jan. 8), Haku (Jan. 9), Gaara (Jan. 19), and Shino (Jan. 23)!!!**

**Naruto: -blows little horn with the ribbon thing at the end-**

**Sasuke: -pops party favor-**

**Gai: YOSH!!! THE FLAME OF YOUTH BURNS IN THIS YOUNG AUTHOR!!!**

**Emolette: -sweatdrop- It does not. . .**

**Hiashi & Hizashi: . . .**

**Emolette: Not even a thank you? You just confirmed the stereotype for all Hyuuga's ya' know. . . except for Hinata. . .**

**Haku: Arigato Emo-chan -kind smile that's brighter then the sun-**

**Emolette: Ah! My eyes! Too much light from an androgynous hottie!**

**Gaara: -blush- Arigato gozaimasu Iimorettu-chan**

**Emolette: Cool, my name in Japanese^^**

**Shino: . . . Thanks. . .**

**Emolette: The Aburame's are more stoic then the Hyuugas yet at least they have manners enough to say thanks when someone wishes them a happy birthday. . . Anyway, I hope you enjoyed my slightly rushed fic and be patient readers! Be aware and beware for the next chappie!!!**

**Footnote: Sansaku Seishou no Jutsu - Walking Spirit Jutsu: the spirit leaves the body and is able to roam freely as long as it's not too far from the body. Useful for infiltration and spy missions.  
**


End file.
